My Johto Journey
by Stormcyclone21
Summary: Jordan has just won the Orange league and now he has his sights set on the Johto region. Join him and his friends as they meet new people, encounter new Pokemon and come face to face with and old evil, who plans to stop Jordan as he challenges the Gyms to make his way to the Silver Conference.
1. Leaf and Liam

**Disclaimer: **

**Jordan: Hello, we are taking over this series, the author has no rights.**

**Camilla: We will now be at every disclaimer telling you that the author has no rights towards Pokémon.**

Leaf and Liam

Am I stupid?

Yes. The answer to that question is; yes.

But what else could I have done. I couldn't cope so I ran away, anyone else would have done the same.

I lost, not just that, but I lost at the first hurdle. I made all that progression, before I was thrown back, all the way to square one.

It was a mistake running away, I know that now. I couldn't face my friends, I had to hide from them go somewhere they never would.

My dad took me to a secluded area in Kanto, he had helped me train, then he took off and told me to go home. I had to make it out of that secluded area myself. I easily escaped, I had Pidgeot. Red was waiting on the other side, he took me back to Pallet and left without a word, I've been here ever since.

I know Jordan would have told me not to beat myself up. What we achieved was great, but I wanted more. I was hungry for more success. I felt guilty for leaving without giving him an explanation.

But that guilt didn't even come close to close with the guilt I felt for leaving Leaf. The guilt that weighed me down the most, the guilt that weighed the heaviest, the guilt that was worse a hundred times over, that was the guilt I felt for leaving Leaf.

Leaf and I had travelled all over the region, but all I did was stab her in the back. After all we had been through together, she had stuck by me and what did I do in return? I left her.

I was now in my gramps lab; I had been in Pallet for almost a whole year. I spent most of my time with my Pokémon or reading. Reading? I know right? Liam Oak, reading? Not the sort of thing I would do, but what I read gave me a broader insight to Pokémon lives and knowledge that would have helped me on my first journey, no wonder Jordan was always ahead of me.

Gramps was telling me about Jordan, Camilla, Leaf and their new friend Tracey, and the adventures they were having in the Orange Islands Archipelago. The first-time gramps told me about it, I wondered where Brock was, but a few weeks ago Brock appeared out of the blue.

We asked why he was back, but he refused to answer us.

Gramps had asked him multiple times why he was back from being with professor Ivy, but instead of responding, Brock crawled into a corner and started to mumble inaudibly to himself.

Being in Pallet I had been training with my Pokémon strengthening our bonds, applying what I read in books to when I spent time with them.

Right now my Pokémon were out the back of my gramps lab in the large field.

'…on their way back soon.' Gramps finished.

I felt guilty I had zoned out while gramps was telling me about my friends adventure.

Gramps knew what happened.

He sighed in exasperation.

'Honestly, Liam.' He scolded me.

'Sorry, Gramps.' I apologized. 'Come again.'

Gramps sighed, he was probably tired of telling me this over and over.

'Jordan told me that he had beaten the Orange League champion, he arrived in Vermillion this morning. He said he was going to see his mother before coming here.' Gramps told me.

Jordan had beaten a Pokémon league.

'What?' I exclaimed. 'Jordan has beaten a Pokémon league?' I asked.

I had a whole year of training, while Jordan had another adventure to another league, managed to collect the badges and ultimately conquer the league and beat the champion.

'Jordan first beat the Orange crew, then battled the champion and came out on top.' Gramps told me.

That was great, for Jordan. I'm glad he had fulfilled his dream before I fulfilled mine. I guess it was my fault, I did take a year off.

I will not be doing that again.

The door to the lab opened.

I spun around and froze.

There was Leaf.

'Professor Oak, this is…' Leaf stopped as her eyes found me.

'Tracey.' Gramps said.

I didn't see Tracey, Leaf's surprised look turned to anger quickly. She walked towards me.

I received a hard slap across the face, I deserved that.

Then Leaf pulled me into a hug, so tight that if we were any closer we would probably have fused together.

'I hate you.' Leaf mumbled into me.

'I know.' I replied.

We were silent for a few second in the embrace.

'Leaf…' I started.

'Nope.' She said as she started to break down into me.

I could feel her shaking as she sobbed silently.

The guilt I said I felt before that was a walk in the park compared to how I now felt.

I just let Leaf cry into me, I cradled her to try and comfort her.

I then held har at arm's length.

'Leaf, look at me.' I said.

She looked at me with her tear stained eyes. I wiped away the tears with my thumb. My heart was crushed at seeing her this hurt. I couldn't imagine how she looked when I left, that crushed my entire being.

'Oh my god, Leaf. I am so sorry.' I said using all my willpower not to break down in guilt.

She then came into to give me another hug. I held her again, letting her finish her sobs into me.

Jordan was right when he asked about me and Leaf.

We were more than friends. I definitely had a crush on her, she was pretty and the way she talked about her dream when she had found something interesting, she makes me laugh and I feel giddy sometimes when I spend time with her. I missed her terribly, not that id tell anyone but her.

'Well, I'm glad you two are back to whatever that is.' Jordan said coming in.

Camilla was close behind him.

'Just like whatever that is.' I said gesturing between Camilla and him.

They both blushed in embarrassment.

'Jordan!' Brock exclaimed coming through the door that Tracey and Gramps must have walked through.

'Brock?' He asked in confusion.

'Brock?' Camilla asked in the same tone.

'I see you two are doing fine, congratulations by the way, Jordan.' Brock said. 'But you have a long way to go before you complete your dream.' Brock said.

'I know, I don't feel anywhere near to finishing it.' Jordan replied.

'Leaf can we talk?' I asked. My tone said in private.

'Oh, no.' Camilla said.

Leaf and I both looked at her in surprise.

'I'm sorry.' I apologised not knowing if I heard her properly.

'You are going to catch up with Jordan while Leaf and I spend some quality girl time.' Camilla said.

I looked at Jordan, his expression said, "don't argue".

Camilla looked at him and he smiled innocently.

Camilla walked out to the field out the back of gramps lab.

'So, Jordan?' I started. 'Beaten a Pokémon league?' I asked.

'Heh, yeah, I guess. It's only been a day but I'm still trying to grasp that I won.' He said.

He was in disbelief? That was understandable, I would be in disbelief if I won a Pokémon league, I wouldn't be able to grasp the concept till at least a few days later.

'Wait!' I exclaimed, 'you won yesterday?' I asked.

'Yes, I did, in the afternoon.' He replied.

'How did gramps find out so early?' I asked, but it was more to myself.

'Well, I called him this morning to let him know we were in Vermillion. And that we'd be back soon.' Jordan told me.

'Why don't we go out to the field?' Brock asked. 'You can let your Pokémon out there Jordan, plus there is a surprise for you.' Brock continued.

I knew what the surprise was, but I didn't know how Jordan would take it. Lance had come to the lab a few days ago, he gave an ultra-ball to gramps before he left. Gramps told Brock and I about it and now we had a surprise for Jordan.

Brock led us both out and Jordan's surprise was soaring in the air around in a circle like it was a bird of prey, it had been learning from my Pidgeot which I scolded at once I knew what it was up to.

Jordan hadn't yet noticed, he let all his Pokémon out and they saw that they were free, they all scattered in different directions.

I noticed he didn't have Charizard.

'Where's your Charizard?' I asked.

'I left him with Liza in Charicific Valley.' He told me.

'Liza? Chari-what Valley?' I asked. He had not yet told me about his journey in the Orange islands.

'Oh right, my jour…'

A roar from the stopped him mid-sentence.

He looked up to the sky and coming straight for him was his surprise.

'Aerodactyl?' He asked.

The fossil Pokémon landed in front of him. Jordan ran to Aerodactyl and gave him a hug by wrapping his arms around Aerodactyls neck.

Aerodactyl enjoyed the hug and wrapped his wings around Jordan.

'When did Lance bring him back?' Jordan asked.

'A few days ago.' Brock said. 'Lance said his primal instincts are almost undetectable.' Brock continued.

'So, your journey?' I asked.

'Right.' Jordan chuckled nervously.

Brock and I walked with Jordan as he started his story.

He told me that when the Pokémon league ended, and Lance still remained Champion that they came back to Pallet Town and Gramps gave him a yellow and white Pokeball and they were to take it to professor Ivy in the Orange islands. When Jordan mentioned professor Ivy, Brock turned away and muttered something inaudible. Jordan continued and said that they headed to the Orange islands in a Zeppelin that they found out was owned by team Rocket. I butted in remembering that Red had disbanded team Rocket. Jordan said that obviously they were making a comeback. He then said that they landed on the island where Professor Ivy resided. Professor Ivy told him about the Pokémon league in The Orange islands so he decided to compete, he said then it wouldn't be a waste of going to the orange islands, he would actually go there to do something. He said that Brock decided to stay with professor Ivy and her assistants, on the next island they met up with Tracey, who was a Pokémon watcher and he explained what that was since I didn't have a clue. They then found a Lapras who was taken from its pod and frisky with humans, but Jordan, Camilla, Leaf and their new friend Tracey were able to re unite it with its pod later. He then told me about his first Gym challenge how he had to beat a girl named Missy in a series of water trials, he told me that he won by a small margin. And he received his first badge. He then said that his friends then found a Pokémon centre with no Nurse Joy, so they went out in search for her and found that she was wounded and wasn't able to move, so he and his friends helped nurse Joy get back to the Pokémon centre. He then said that they met a girl called Akari Janarisuto who found a rival in Camilla. Once the battled ended in a draw they then went to the next island where Jordan won his second badge against a guy named Daniel. After that the made their way to the grapefruit isles where they met up with Snorlax, he was destroying the grapefruit produce and Jordan managed to stop him once he had destroyed one of the second islands and had managed to reach the second. They then met up with Akari on the next island who told them about a ship and they found out that a trophy that belonged to one of the former Orange island winners had vanished from the museum, Jordan and his friends checked it out and found out that the trophy was taken by Ghastly, Haunter and Gengar because it was their masters and they were going to keep it. Jordan said they respected the decision and let without returning the trophy. They then went to the next island where a quarrel of Scyther stopped people from laving the island, Tracey helped one of the Scyther and decided to capture it, it was now travelling with Tracey. Then on the next island of Mandarin they wanted a rest, but Jordan wanted a battle. Jordan found Lorelei and had an unofficial double battle with her, when he said he lost that made me feel a bit better at not losing, he then said that he battled Leaf and won, that surprised me, Leaf in a battle against Jordan. Leaf wasn't exactly the one to battle. After Mandarin they went to Jordan's third battle where the leader Rudy took a shine to Camilla. Jordan didn't look happy; I knew he was jealous that Camilla got loads of attention of the Gym leader. Jordan managed to beat Rudy and won his third badge. On the next island they met a few new Pokémon that were native to Johto. He then met up with his uncle who helped him in stopping a guy called Lawrence III who was so eager to capture the legendary birds of Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. I heard that Jordan had met them once, this was his second time. He, his friends and Riley were able to stop Lawrence III with the help from the legendary Pokémon, Lugia. Gramps had told me about Lugia, and I had seen a picture of it, but Jordan had seen it in person. I was jealous that Jordan had seen more legendary Pokémon than me. He then proceeded to tell me about the battle for his last badge that it was a double battle and he only managed to win. He the went to Pummelo island to battle Drake, he told me about the whole battle which I didn't interrupt once, he then told me about after and how he had seen his half-brother in a photo. Then he said he got about to Vermillion, flew to Pewter so Camilla could see her parents, then he flinched for a second. Then he said that they walked to Viridian and met up with Leaf's parents who had recently moved to Viridian, then they came here to Pallet town.

Now I was all caught up with their journey.

'Seems like you had quite the adventure in the Orange islands.' I remarked.

'You could say that.' he replied.

'So what are your plans now?' I asked him.

'Well before Professor Oak told us about the GS ball Blue mentioned a neighbouring region called Johto, so I guess that is where I will travel to next.' He said.

'That's a great idea, and this time I will win the league and you can watch me from the stands in awe at how great I've become.' I told him.

'Come now, Liam. You've had a whole year off and I've been training on my journey.' He replied,

'Mock all you like Jordan, but I'm not going to jump into battle now. I want to spend the rest of the day apologizing and making it up to Leaf about how sorry I am.' I told him.

He looked at me in shock. I wasn't normally the one to turn down a battle, but I did want to try and make things up with Leaf, I probably couldn't do it in a day, but that wouldn't stop me from trying and if she didn't want to travel with me to Johto after this I would understand.

'Well, she's all yours now.' Camilla said.

I realized they had returned from their girl talk.

'Need to know.' Leaf said to Camilla.

Camilla nodded before she went to talk with Brock and Jordan.

'Okay, Liam this is how its going to go.' Leaf started. 'You have three hours with me before I return home in Viridian, Brock and Camilla are going to escort me home. Then tomorrow you will come and pick me up in the morning and we will make our way to Johto.' Leaf said.

'Of course, Leaf.' I replied.

I would dare not go against what she asked, I had to make up for what I did to her and that started now.

'So, what do you want to do first?' I asked her.

Leaf looked at me in shock.

'You're asking me?' She asked.

'Of course, whatever you want.' I replied.

'You wanted to talk to me.' She reminded me.

'Yeah, I'm not sure if now is the time.' I replied.

'Liam, whatever I want.' She reminded me.

Damn it, now I had to abide by her wishes, why did I have to let her get her way? I could have just picked something, but no, I went with whatever she wanted.

'Well I did want to ask you what your plans were for after today, but you already told me what that was.' I said, 'So Johto?' I asked.

'Yeah, well Jordan is going there with his friends and I made the decision to travel with you again, but this time exploring the region from the start.' Leaf said.

'Made the decision to travel with me.' I asked.

'Camilla thinks it's a terrible idea because of what you put me through, do you know how much it hurt me?' Leaf asked.

I opened my mouth, but she kept going.

'I thought we were best friends Liam, I thought you said you'd do anything for me, you said so yourself on route one, when we came back from Mewtwo's island before we got captured by team Rocket, what happened to that?' She asked. 'I trusted you, Liam and you just stabbed me in the back, turned your back on me…' Leaf said, she started to cry.

I embraced her again instead of saying anything.

I took her hat off and her chocolate curls cascaded down her back.

'You left.' She whispered looking up at me. 'Last time you promised you would always be there for me, you promised.' She said her voice breaking

'I'm not going anywhere, never again. This promise I will not break; I promise not to break this promise.' I said. 'I'm sorry to say this, Leaf, but it seems like you are stuck with me.'

She giggled, that cute giggle that I missed terribly.

'We are best friends Leaf, from now on, anything you want, if you want to side-track from our set path, just tell me and we will go.' I said.

'I'm not going to make you give up on your dream for me.' She said.

'I'm sure we can stray away for a few weeks.' I said. 'the gyms and Pokémon league aren't going anywhere.' I said.

'Liam, I don't trust you to stay with me always on this journey, but believe me, if you do leave this time I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive you.' Leaf told me.

'Leaf, believe me, I am not going anywhere.' I told her.

I would never put Leaf through that again. I couldn't imagine how much it hurt Leaf, and it hurt me that hurt Leaf, I felt to guilty and so terribly stupid.

I gave Leaf her hat back, but she didn't put it back on, she just carried it in her hand.

She and I entered gramps lab and it seemed like he was on the phone.

'…five of them are coming.' I heard my gramps say.

I heard some mumbling on the other side but couldn't make it out what the other person was saying.

'I know there are three Robert, but five are coming, and they'll be there by tomorrow.'

I didn't know who Robert was, but gramps was having a conversation about three and five, but I was confused so Leaf and I kept going out to Pallet town.

'I know what I want now.' Leaf said as we reached the bottom of the steps that led to my gramps lab.

'What is that?' I asked.

'A new hat.' She replied.

'And you want to go to Viridian for that?' I asked.

'Yes.' She replied.

I had just left all my Pokémon at my gramps lab, and now I had to go back to get one.

'I'll be back in a minute.' I said and left Leaf to take one of my Pokémon.

I ran into the lab, gramps turned from his couch, but I paid him no attention. I was back out in the field within seconds.

I would take whoever came first.

Alakazam teleported itself in front of me.

I opened up his Pokeball and Alakazam was sucked in before I ran back through the lab and back down the steps toward Leaf who was patiently waiting for me.

'Ready?' I asked.

Leaf looked at me with a playful glare, like she was the one who should be asking.

We made our way to Pallet towns exit.

This time I didn't turn back, this time I didn't need to, I knew I would be coming back.

I let out Alakazam and he walked into route one before Leaf and I did.

Alakazam led the whole way, through the first route, he was the Pokémon I had a strong enough bond with, in order for him to mega evolve.

'So what's wrong with your white sun hat?' I asked gesturing to the hat she had in her hand.

'It's not like Camilla's.' She replied.

'You want the same had as Camilla?' I asked.

'No, I want the same type of hat to Camilla's.' Leaf told me.

'Why is that?' I asked.

'She wears a Fedora, she has a signature Fedora, she always wears that hat, I want my own signature Fedora, if she can pull a Fedora off, why can't I?' She asked rhetorically.

'So you know exactly which one you want?' I asked.

'Yep and the ribbon to go with it.' She said.

'A ribbon?' I asked.

'Camilla's signature Fedora is white with a black ribbon, she has always had that as her signature Fedora, when Jordan first met her she was wearing that hat. Now she has a new-ish one, but its still the same, white with a black ribbon on it.' Leaf explained. 'That is one of the things involved in "girl talk", we talk about clothes.' Leaf continued.

I was glad I wasn't involved in "girl talk", I wouldn't be able to stand it.

'So, you want new hat because?' I asked.

'I want a new hat for a new region' Leaf said. 'A new hat, a new me, a new start.'

I was glad Leaf was so forgiving, she was wiping the slate clean, a fresh start for us.

We exited the route a few seconds later and I returned Alakazam.

We had made it without meeting any Pokémon.

As soon as we entered Viridian City Lead made a beeline straight to the boutique. I had nothing to do but follow her.

When I entered I found her standing in awe, like she had never been in here before.

'Wow.' She said.

Wow was right, I was so glad I had never been clothes shopping, how were there so many clothes in one shop? Plus this wasn't the only boutique in Kanto, there were several others. I dreaded to think what they looked like compared to this one.

I did not want to think about this, Leaf was in here for one thing and she knew exactly what it was.

'Leaf, your hat?' I asked when she hadn't moved.

Leaf blinked and went around the shop looking for the hats, I had no choice but to follow her. She stopped a few times to look at other items of clothing, but thank goodness it wasn't for long, I didn't even want to be in here in the first place.

This is what the girls did, clothes shopping trip, Camilla, Leaf and Rachel would have done this together if they were travelling together.

Girls and their clothes. Brock, Jordan and I were not fussed about clothes, if we went to buy clothes we'd be in and out quickly.

Eventually we found the hats and Leaf picked up a white fedora and then proceeded to look for the ribbons and I followed her. We looked around for ten minutes with no luck.

Leaf went to the counter.

'Where are the ribbons?' She asked the person behind the counter.

The person behind the counter gestured behind her.

'Can I have…that one.' Leaf said pointing to a coral coloured Ribbon.

'Would you like me to come help fit it for you?' She asked.

'Yes please.' Leaf replied.

We followed the woman to the changing room.

I sat outside the fitting rooms on a bench.

I heard the girls mumbling in the changing room.

About five minutes later the woman came out and returned back to the counter.

Leaf came out a few seconds later with her new white hat and coral ribbon wrapped with a bow tie at the front.

'It looks great Leaf, definitely a "you" hat.' I told her.

'Really?' She asked.

'Really.' I replied.

She looked at the hat in a mirror and did a twirl.

'I'll take it.' She affirmed.

She went to the counter and paid for it.

Leaf left the shop wearing her new hat.

I saw it was starting to get dark, we weren't in there that long were we?

How did we spend so, long in a clothes shop, how did I survive, maybe those five minutes were longer and maybe those few seconds were also longer, maybe I believed they were that short because I couldn't stand being in there for long.

'Thank you, Liam.' Leaf said giving me a hug.

I returned the gesture.

'I'll see you tomorrow, she turned around and headed further into Viridian.

'Leaf.' I started. 'What about Brock and Camilla?' I asked.

'I told them that they could go straight home cause I was in Viridian.' Leaf replied.

'See you tomorrow, Liam.'

'See you, Leaf.' I said.

She smiled and took off. I was left alone.

I walked back through route one as the sky turned a dark shade of blue. I didn't let Alakazam out, Pokémon were less active at night, so the chances of me running into one was unlikely.

As soon as I reached Pallet town, there were a few stars sparkling in the black night sky.

I reached my house and looked at it. I hadn't been here in almost two years; it would be nice to sleep in my old bed.

I went in and headed straight upstairs. I went straight to sleep.

_I stared ahead in horror._

_I was not one to freeze in horror, but when a friend has those words come out from his mouth then you know something bad had just happened and I had no idea what happened or how it happened._

_There he was as normal as he usually was and then he turned furious and in a rage of epic proportions. The girl who had been with him since just before his second gym badge was standing behind him and was the only one who didn't look frightened, she looked concerned. Like she was scared of what would happen to him, not what he was doing as if something was controlling him._

_He looked around and a grin fell across his face, an evil grin, like he was about to kill someone. I was still frozen where I stood, unable to move._

_The girl put their hand on his shoulder, and he turned._

I woke up, it was starting to get light outside. I realized where I was. I was in my bed. I relished a few more seconds in the comfort before I remembered today was the first day of my second adventure, my adventure through Johto.

Gramps had told me how to get there a few times so I would be able to get there easily, it was the neighbouring region of Kanto, so we didn't have far to go, technically Leaf and I could walk to Johto, it wasn't that far, plus a perilous path awaited us between victory road and the first town we would enter. Apparently it was as tough as Victory Road. Leaf and I found that quite tough, the amount of times people had got lost, but we eventually found our way to the Pokémon league, only this time it wouldn't be the Pokémon league, instead it would be the first town in Johto.

Just then I remembered I had to meet Leaf in Viridian before we headed to Johto.

I went to my gramps lab and took all my Pokémon before I grabbed Leaf's, she wouldn't want to come all the way to Pallet town, she'd want to get on the adventure straight away.

I entered Viridian five minutes later, I almost ran, I was eager to see Leaf and get out Johto adventure underway.

Leaf was waiting for me in front of the Pokémon centre.

'What took you so long?' She joked looking at my red cheeks.

'I'm excited to get to Johto.' I replied.

Leaf raised her eyebrow, but didn't press me, she didn't catch on that I told her a white lie.

I was excited to get to Johto, but that was not why I ran.

We exited Viridian to the west and came across a man just before Victory Road.

'Liam Oak, of Pallet Town. Leaf Green of previously Lavender Town.'

Thank goodness he didn't address me as grandson of Samuel Oak or Professor Oak. I didn't not want to be known as that person. I wanted to be known as my own person, not by my dads or grandads achievements, Jordan wasn't known as the son to Red and nephew to Riley, so why should I be known by my families achievements?

I took a breath before Leaf and I entered Johto.

**Jordan: I guess a chapter from Liam was okay.**

**Liam: Okay, this chapter was amazing, why can't I do more chapters?**

**Camilla: Jordan is the protagonist, Liam.**

**Leaf: Plus the way you'd describe Tohjo falls would not make sense.**

**Liam: Girls ganging up on me, help!**

**Jordan: Anyway, see you next chapter back in my POV**

**Chapter Two: Tall Tales of Tohjo**


	2. Tall Tales of Tohjo

**Disclaimer:**

**Jordan: Hello again, back to my POV, once again…**

**Camilla: …the author does not own Pokémon.**

**Jordan: Camilla!**

**Camilla: What?**

Tall Tales of Tohjo

Brock had decided to join us through Johto, that I was glad for, Tracey had decided to stay with the professor. Professor Oak didn't mind.

I left with Brock and Camilla who I met in Viridian and now were on the first path in Johto.

People think Johto started once you entered the first town, but the route between victory road and the first town of Johto is where Johto starts.

Johto felt different to Kanto, it had an almost alien feel to it. It wasn't my home region, but it just felt off, like something bad was going to happen.

'Hey buddy, sense anything?' I asked.

'Pika.' He said shaking his head.

I trusted Pikachu, but something just felt off as soon as we entered this route.

Brock was looking at his PokéNav plus, I know that we didn't have Johto's map installed on our PokéNav's, maybe we would get the map installed at a later point, apparently there was no functionality in the Orange Islands to do with PokéNav's at all.

I wondered what Brock was looking at, but I didn't ask as I was still being cautious.

Camilla also looked nervous, like something bad would happen.

I looked at Cubone and realized that it had still not evolved or even attacked anything, it had been over a year. Cubone was saved by Camilla in Lavender town, that was a whole year just before my third Gym battle and now we were entering our third year travelling together, Camilla and I would have been travelling together for two years in a few months.

Two years since we first met, two years since we became friends.

Camilla had her hair cut, it was now cut quite short, it fell to just above her shoulders, but it was still in curls and she was still wearing her signature fedora hat, her clothes were different from the Orange islands, her foster parents must have given her new clothes. I now understood why they were worried about Camilla, and why meeting me may have been a bad idea, but they didn't mind me now, they knew I'd be able to keep Camilla safe, even if I couldn't say the same for myself.

Camilla was wearing brown lace boots, that came to halfway up her shin, a white short sleeved shirt with a black collar tucked in a deep blue knee length dress. She was wearing a grey fleecy jacket.

She had a white tote bag slung over her shoulders and a Pokéball belt strapped around her waist.

I was wearing a purple t-shirt with yellow paint splatters with most of the left shoulder being yellow, but you couldn't see it as it was under my aqua coloured hoodie. The hoodie was primarily aqua with a white collar and aqua hood, the bottom of hoodie is a bright pink. The trousers I wore were denim blue jeans with small tufts of rips on them. My trainers were white trainers with grey on each side. The bag I had slung over my left shoulder that fell to my right side was a primarily orange two tone messenger bag, the bottom half of the flap was black, underside of strap was also black. My cap was black with a white top with black beak, the underside of the beak is red. There is a shield on the front on the left side with a grey Pokéball logo, I also had a green feather accessory on it.

The cap that I got for my birthday was almost destroyed, my mum gave me a new one, she had brought all these clothes for me and they were a lot comfier than I thought they'd be. Brock was wearing what he wore what he was wearing the last time we saw him, the murky green top with a brown jacket over it and dark orange trousers with black shoes, he also had the same rucksack. You could carry loads of supplies in that, not like mine or Camilla's.

This route is said to be treacherous, not many people are brave enough to travel it, they just get transport some other way, but since we had a bad experience with flying and they didn't have a train active, or a boat that goes to Johto, this was the only way.

We walked in silence for a few minutes before Brock exclaimed.

'Whoa!'

I almost jumped out of my skin. I saw Camilla was shocked too.

We were both thinking the same thing, I could tell from he way she looked toward me.

'What is it?' I asked, turning to face Brock, he had a brochure. I swear he used them more than the PokéNav plus.

'It seems that before we reach the first town there is a place called Tohjo falls.' He replied.

'Tohjo falls?' Camilla asked.

It seemed like an interesting place and even before we reached the first town.

'Where is it?' I asked.

'Its near the end of the route, but its pretty big and according to this, quite expanse, people have actually gotten lost in there, but there's loads to explore in there.' Brock explained. 'Its apparently name Tohjo falls because there are crashing waterfalls inside that are breath-taking and can keep you captivated for ages.'

Well, if it was the waterfalls that made you get lost, then I'd like to steer clear of the waterfalls.

'Any chance we can avoid it?' I asked.

'Jordan!' Camilla scolded.

'What?' I asked.

'You're going to ignore an opportunity that would help fill up our Pokédexes?' Camilla asked.

She was right there could be Pokémon in Tohjo falls that we had not yet recorded in our new updated Pokédexes.

'Camilla, the chance of that is very slim.' Brock said. 'But, Jordan, I know I said that people got lost, but that's only because they strayed from the path, it should only take us a few minutes to get through.' Brock told me.

That reassured me, but I understood why people would stray from the path, exploring a vast cave would be interesting, there may be many great Pokémon as you ventured further in, but the more you ventured in the easier it would be to get lost.

'Even if you wanted to avoid it, it's not possible, there is no way around it.' Brock said.

'What does Tohjo falls look like?' I asked.

'I guess it looks like that.' Camilla said.

She was pointing to a large mountain; I could see the entrance a few metres from us. It was dark inside; I couldn't see much from here.

'That's Tohjo falls all right.'

'Cue.' We heard Cubone call.

We all looked at Cubone, it was wriggling wildly in Camilla's arms, like something inside Tohjo falls was bothering.

'Anything bud?' I asked Pikachu.

Pikachu just shook his head, he couldn't feel anything, I didn't understand how Cubone, could, maybe he was agitated, but he never seemed this agitated before.

Cubone wiggled so much that he jumped from Camilla's arms, he landed on his feet on the floor and began to run into Tohjo falls.

'Cubone!' Camilla yelled and ran after Cubone.

Brock and I ran after her. Once we entered we didn't stop running. We couldn't admire the way Tohjo falls looked, not while we had a bigger problem, but I could see stalagmites and stalactites protruding from the ground and the cavern roof. I could hear water trickling, but I couldn't see from where, I saw Cubone up ahead, I didn't know how we hadn't caught up with him, he was a baby, how was he so fast.

He disappeared in a small crack in the wall, it was easy for him, but it was hard for Brock, Camilla and I to squeeze through. So much for not straying from the path.

Once we got though we came up to another cavern room, it looked like the first one, but with this one there were two waterfalls that were at the back wall.

Cubone was standing in the middle, it sounded like it was arguing with something that we couldn't see.

'Rhydon, stop this pesky pest from making any more noise.'

We all stopped dead in our tracks.

No! It couldn't be.

I would never mistake that voice for anyone else's.

He couldn't be here. How could he be here?

Giovanni stepped out of from behind a rock as his Rhydon appeared from a Pokéball.

He looked at us, his faced morphed into shock before returning to its evil smirk.

'Jordan Hale and Camilla Brook.' Giovanni smiled.

How did he know Camilla's real name.

Camilla and I were both shocked.

'You needn't look so surprised.' Giovanni said taking a step forward. 'It wasn't hard for my executives to find out everything we had on you.' Giovanni explained.

'You killed my parents!' Camilla yelled at him.

'Yes I did.' Giovanni said in a calm voice.

'You destroyed my life, took it away from me! A three-year-old girl shouldn't witness something like that!' She yelled.

'It was necessary.' Giovanni said shaking off her accusations.

'Necessary!' She yelled. 'How was it necessary?' She asked still with her voice raised.

'I couldn't get them to spill my whereabouts or plans to the police, no doubt they would betray me as soon as I let them leave.' Giovanni replied. I didn't understand how he could be so calm when Camilla was yelling at him like this. 'Miss Brook, if you wouldn't mind ceasing this quarrel for a moment.' Giovanni said.

Camilla had her mouth agape; I could see she was furious. Absolutely fuming. I had never seen her this mad. She had tears rolling down her face.

'My quarrel is not with you, it with Mr Hale here.'

'Me?' I asked looking at Giovanni.

'Yes, you humiliated me…'

'No.' Camilla said from next to me.

'Excuse me?' Giovanni asked.

'No. Your quarrel may not be with me, but I have a quarrel with you.' Camilla said. 'I have so many things that I wish to say to you, to do to you, unimaginable things, so you feel even a tiny bit of how I felt when you killed my parents.'

'How dare you!' Giovanni raised his voice.

He was looking at Camilla.

If Camilla wasn't furious before now, she definitely was now, she was shaking with pure rage, like she would jump Giovanni and kill him on the spot.

'Rhydon take care of her.'

Rhydon walked forward, but Cubone ran toward Rhydon and began hitting it with its small bone.

Rhydon swiped it away with one of its paws.

Cubone flew through the air to my right and landed on the floor, unable to move.

'Cubone!' Camilla yelled in concern, she lost her rage and immediately ran to Cubones aid.

'Now, that's out of the way.' Giovanni started. 'Where were we?' He asked rhetorically.

'You humiliated me, in front of every Team Rocket members. My executives even saw their leader as weak, so I decided to destroy you, but your father came in to save you. But this time he won't save you, you are all by yourself. No-one can save you this time.' Giovanni said bringing out a gun and pointing it to me. 'And once you are dead I'll kill the girl too, something I should have done after I killed her parents, one mistake I made.'

We heard a whoosh and a clank before Giovanni dropped his gun, holding his and in pain.

'Ow!' He exclaimed.

I looked toward my right and saw that Camilla's Cubone had thrown its bone perfectly, it was standing in front of Camilla with is hand in the air as if it expected its bone to come back. Not a moment later Cubone started to glow and it grew in size. This was unexpected, Cubone had done nothing, but be as a baby normally was, in its mothers care, but now it was to evolve and actually stand up for its mother. As soon as the glowing stopped a Marowak was in Cubones place. It had one hand on the ground and one hand in the air in a fighting stance, It was looking toward the ground. Marowak caught a bone that seemed to come out of nowhere. It looked up toward Rhydon as if it was challenging it to try attacking it again. I was sure that Marowak wouldn't be strong enough to take on Giovanni's Rhydon, Marowak had only just evolved.

Marowak ran toward Rhydon and hit it round the face with its bone. Rhydon staggered a few steps before regaining its balance, Marowak landed behind Rhydon.

'Bone club.' Camilla called.

Marowak hit the back of Rhydons leg and it fell to one knee.

'Rhydon, magnitude.' Giovanni called out.

I knew he was going to get angry at Camilla in a second, how a girl of her age was managing to easily beat his strongest Pokémon.

'Marowak, earthquake.'

Rhydon jumped and created a shaking, but Marowak jumped and caused an even greater shake, the room shook violently as both moves connected.

We all fell to the floor, normally I was able to withstand the shaking, but this was two moves with immense power tackling the other and they both created tremors, one more than the other.

A fissure was created next to Giovanni and his Rhydon, the shaking was too much for them that they fell in.

'This isn't the end Jordan Hale; I will find you and you will die at my hands.' Giovanni roared as he fell down a fissure that had just been created in this room. I heard his maniacal laugh fade into nothingness.

I hoped that was the end, but I had almost no doubt I would run into him again. Giovanni always found a way to find me, but this time there was a possibility that he may be dead.

Marowak turned to Camilla who immediately embraced her newly evolved Pokemon.

'Thank you for saving me, Marowak.' Camilla said into their embrace.

'Than you for saving my life too.' I said coming up behind Marowak.

Marowak turned to me nodding its head.

'We should leave guys before anything else colossal happens today.' Brock said.

'Yeah, I've had enough of big events happen today.' I agreed.

'Well our hunches were right earlier.' Camilla stated, standing up next to her Marowak.

She was right, we had both felt something bad was going to happen and it did.

'Your ESP was active when we entered Johto?' I asked.

'That means your Aura must have been active too, Jordan.' Brock said.

'Then I don't know how we couldn't sense that the other had a bad feeling.' I replied.

Maybe it was because our abilities could only sense one thing, and that was the bad feeling, our abilities couldn't sense two things just yet.

'You both know your abilities aren't due to you yet, it just flares up every now and then.' Brock reminded us.

'Me should probably go then, don't want to stay here any longer than necessary.' Camilla said.

We started to walk to the small space we crawled through earlier and Camilla stopped.

'Marowak?' She asked. 'Are you coming?'

Marowak looked to her with a sad expression and shook its head.

'Maro.' It said.

Camilla went back to it and gave it one last hug, but this time Marowak returned it with just as much love.

Both Brock and I understood this was goodbye, this would be hard for Camilla, she had taken care of Cubone and it had taken so long to grow up and had only been a Marowak for a few minutes, but now it was going to stay in Tohjo falls to keep the peace and help any injured Pokemon and guide people away from this room and on their own way to the exit.

This would have been hard with any one of my Pokemon, if I had to part with any of them, but especially Pikachu. He would be the hardest to say goodbye to, he was my best friend.

Both Camilla and Marowak let go after a minute or so.

Camilla ran in the opposite direction, she crawled through the small space and we ran after her.

I knew she was crying and I knew this was hard for her, to her Marowak was still a baby, imagine losing a baby, that's how distraught Camilla was.

As soon as she got through the other side she stopped and I caught up to her.

I embraced her and she cried into me.

Brock came through a few seconds later.

He nodded to me in understanding, he probably knew what it was like, he had to abandon his siblings to pursue his dream, sure his dad was back, but he cared for them for so long and some of his Pokemon had to be left behind.

Camilla and I let go and she wiped the tears away from her eyes.

'Let's go guys.' She said.

She obviously didnt want to talk about what had happened and Tohjo falls was the last place she wanted to be at the moment, we all started toward the exit.

Tohjo falls wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be, but this caverns ceiling was really high, there was a ledge on the side opposite to the entrance that went the whole way across the cavern, but it was halfway between the floor and the ceiling. I could hear the crash of water up there, maybe there were a few waterfalls up there, or maybe it was something else.

Whatever the case I didn't want to stay here and find out, at least not after that incident involving Giovanni he was probably planning on returning team Rocket bigger and better than before.

There was one thing that he said that stuck in my mind: "This isn't the end Jordan Hale; I will find you and you will die at my hands." I don't know why this line was stuck in my head, it stood out more than it should.

Of course Giovanni would try and return and rise to power once again and it would be possible that he would find me again, or I would fall into one of his "traps", and he said I will die at his hands, this was farfetched, he did continuously want me dead. And he had tried three times now and I had been close to death all three times. The first time he had me admitted to hospital, the second time after trapping me, my friends and my mother in Viridian gym he battled me and went against his word, he was going to shoot me, but my dad came in and saved all of us. And now the third time he tried to kill me with a gun, Camilla had saved me, her Cubone evolved into Marowak and was sweeping the floor with his most powerful Pokémon, Rhydon.

'Thanks for saving me Camilla.' I said as we neared the end of Tohjo falls.

'You're welcome.' She replied, 'but it was Marowak who saved you, not me.' She replied.

'Now we're even.' I said.

'Even?' Camilla asked. 'How are we even?'

'I saved your life, you saved mine.' I replied.

'No.' Camilla replied. 'We are most definitely not even.' She continued. 'You didn't just save me, you saved hundreds of people almost the whole of Kanto owes their lives to you.' Camilla said.

I looked at her in confusion.

'Camilla is right, Jordan. You've saved your friends lives countless times, but you've saved almost everyone in Kanto at least once, and all those trainers you didn't know on Mewtwo's island you saved their lives.' Brock told me.

'But I let you get captured.' I retorted.

'And where are we now?' Brock asked. 'Are we still captives of some evil or bad wrongdoing, or are we walking with you because believe it or not you saved us?' Brock asked.

Why did I keep doing this? I kept on putting myself down and then my friends kept pulling me back up again, they were as stubborn as I was, but in a different way. I didn't make it easy for them, if I kept putting myself down then they'd eventually give up and let me wallow in self-pity and that wouldn't do anyone any good. Between the pros and cons the pro's outweighed the cons greatly.

'I do need to stop putting myself down.' I said. 'It's not helping either of you.' I replied.

'No, its one of your flaws, thinking whatever you manage to do you're not good enough.' Brock told me.

'And, I'll try to work on that.' I replied.

We arrived at the opposite side of Tohjo falls to where we entered.

I was glad to be back outside. I did not want to go in there again, sure it was an experience, but I would have rather avoided it.

My hunch of uneasiness earlier was spot on, but now I knew why I was uneasy, now it felt like the weight had been lifted.

Maybe my aura had activated in low power mode, telling me something was off, or maybe I just had a feeling something bad was going to happen.

I could see a town not too far away as I stood on top of a hill, I looked down toward it, but we realised Brock had stopped, so we turned to face him.

'Would you both please tell me what happened back there, all of it.' Brock said looking between us. 'You have some explaining to do, Mr Hale and Miss Brook.' Brock told us.

Camilla looked at me.

'You can trust Brock, Camilla, he deserves to know if he's going to be travelling with us, you can't really deny what you said wasn't what you said.' I told her. 'I know it's hard, but we can trust Brock with this.'

'Yeah, starting with your name.' He said. 'Brook? I thought your last name was Foster.'

Camilla cringed.

'Oh a touchy subject.' He mused. 'You don't need to tell me.' Brock said.

'No. it's best that you know.' She replied.

'And how long has Jordan known?' Brock asked.

'A few months.' I replied.

'You must trust him a lot.' Brock said.

'With my life, he's my best friend.' Camilla said.

She looked toward me, and I felt heat rushing to my cheeks, Brock didn't notice, he was still looking at Camilla.

'My last name is Brook.' Camilla started. 'I use Foster because I am a foster child.' Camilla said.

Brock didn't interrupt, not like I had. I had a bad childhood and a really bad experience with team Rocket, worse than Jordan's.' Camilla continued. 'Giovanni shot both my parents when I was three years old. I managed to escape, and my foster parents found me and took me in, they are the only other ones who know about my past.' Camilla said.

Brock let that sink in.

Camilla's version of that to me a was a lot more explanatory than that version, Maybe she didn't want to go through what she went through when she was with me again, it wouldn't be good breaking down here, she wouldn't have that, but Brock and I would help her though it if she did decide to delve deeper inside her past.

We started walking before Brock replied.

'I am very impressed with you Camilla.' Brock said.

This confused Camilla and me.

'Impressed?' She asked.

'The self-control you have,' Brock replied.

'Jordan had motives with team Rocket, and he acted upon them, why didn't you?' Brock asked.

'If I did act like Jordan did, they might find out who I was.' Camilla replied. 'I couldn't have that.'

'But now they know?' Brock asked.

'No.' I said. 'Giovanni knew, no-one else from team rocket knows.' I said.

Both Brock and Camilla looked at me.

'You sound sure about that.' Brock observed.

'Think about it, you heard Giovanni. He said once he kills me _he_ is going to kill Camilla.' I told them.

They both still looked a little confused.

'If anyone else knew about Camilla's identity they would kill Camilla themselves, this would anger Giovanni, either that or they would betray Giovanni because he couldn't kill a three-year old child.' I continued. 'Giovanni wants to finish what he started almost ten years ago.' I finished.

'So the people who found about me?' Camilla asked. Although I knew she knew the answer.

'As soon as he got information from them, he killed them, most likely.' I replied.

'You two need to stop this negative energy now.' Brock said.

He was right this energy was negative, but the things Giovanni said stuck in my head. I couldn't let him kill Camilla, that meant I would have to stay alive. I would if it would save Camilla.

I really should have promised her that I wouldn't die again, not for something that was now pointless.

'We have entered a new region filled with negativity, we should start this new journey with a positive start, we are so close to the first town I can almost smell how new it is.' Brock continued.

I sniffed the air.

I closed my eyes and inhaled peacefully.

I could smell how fresh the ait was here, it was so clean, there were so many smells that would have mixed and would have made a weird smell anywhere else, but here it smelled nice, the flowers pollen flew off their original place and filled the air with magical scents.

I never knew anywhere as clean as this, even Pallet and Lavender didn't smell as clean as this place did.

This place released all my negative thoughts, I forgot about why I was negative.

I opened my eyes and saw a few houses dotted around this new place.

The houses were brown, like they were made of wood with green rooftops, at the side of almost every building was a white wind turbine, each turbine stood a few feet taller than the building it was next to.

There was a building that stood out among the others.

It was white and had a green roof,the roof was a lot flatter than the roofs of the other buildings, the roof was definitely not made of wood. I knew what this building was immediately.

We made it to the bottom of the hill, and I saw a waters surface, it seemed like this was the only way to reach the new town.

This is how it would feel to enter Johto, not how I felt earlier with so much uneasiness. I remembered to back on my first day of my journey in Kanto.

I remembered that it was hard leaving Kanto, but I was so psyched to go on a journey, I thought it would be harder, leaving a town I had lived in for ten years, but now I was leaving it and it would be ages until I returned.

I guess it was easier to leave Pallet town because I was leaving with my best friend Rachel, I had spent almost everyday with her since I was seven and we had become the best of friends, it didn't feel like I was leaving Pallet town, because Pallet Town to me was being with Rachel. Now since she had left I had grown accustomed to travelling with friends, which now consisted of Brock and Camilla.

Brock and Camilla were both going through the same thing I probably was what they did when they first went on this journey, how they started, that was something Camilla never told me, how she started her journey.

'New Bark Town.' Brock said looking out at the town before us.

It was really a sight that I could get used to, but I wanted nothing more than to enter the town and start my journey through Johto, it would be official, how I wanted to feel when I started my journey into this region.

The waters surface was a few feet across. I wondered if using Blastoise was worth it, plus would he even fit? It looked too small for Blastoise to be on to let us pass, and using a fling Pokemon would be pointless because we would return them as soon as we over and that was another factor of why using Blastoise wasn't the best idea.

We were at some conundrum and I was going through all the possibilities.

I didn't want to swim because it would be for a few seconds and I would be soaking as I entered the first town of a region.

I knelt down and looked into the water and I couldn't see the bottom, the water was blue and I didn't know how deep it was.

I got back up and judged the distance before I took three long strides backwards.

Both Brock and Camilla looked at me in confusion.

I ran toward the water and jumped just before I reached it.

Once I reached the other side I almost fell in, but I regained my balance quickly, but I guess Brock and Camilla saw my stumble and probably laughed at my action.

I had misjudged the distance of the water and how far I could jump.

'You guys coming?' I asked as soon as turned around to face them.

Camilla took three strides backwards and followed my run up before jumping over the water, she landed on the side I was on, but she almost stumbled backwards, so I held her by her waist to steady her.

Brock followed our example taking three long strides backwards, but he had a longer run up as his strides were longer than ours.

Brock followed, but he needed no help from us as he made it over with a few inches between the waters edge and where he landed.

'You must be the new trainers.' A voice said from behind us.

We all turned to face the way the voice came from.

**Jordan: So this ends this chapter, a lot of big things happening in this chapter**

**Camilla: Hopefully the next one will be a lot calmer.**

**Jordan: Um.. Yeah about that..**

**Camilla: Really, more big things coming up next?**

**Chapter Three: New Bark, New Start**


	3. New Bark, New Start

**Disclaimer:**

**Jordan: Let's just say that the owner doesn't own Pokemon.**

**Camilla: All rights go to...someone else?**

New Bark, New Start

A man ran toward us a little clumsily.

He had short scruffy brown hair and his skin was shaded a bit darker that fair, his glasses were close to falling off his face, he was carrying a clipboard and papers, the papers threatened to rip themselves away from the clipboard as he ran against the wind.

He was wearing a white lab coat the loosely hung off his thin form. He had dark blue trousers and a pale greet t-shirt scarcely hidden under his lab coat. As he reached us he dropped a pen that was in his hand, I saw a few in the top pocket of his lab coat.

'Did Samuel send you?' He asked us.

I had to rack my brain for who Samuel was.

I couldn't find where the name was from.

'Samuel Oak, did he send you?' The man asked when we couldn't produce an answer.

Did this man mean professor Oak, not really sent us, we came off our own accord.

'Professor Oak?' Camilla asked.

'You're students of Samuel?' This man asked.

'Students?' I asked.

'I was expecting trainers.' This man said.

'Wait.' I started, this man was talking too quickly. 'We are Pokemon trainers from the Kanto region, professor Oak did not send us, we came here by ourselves.'

'He told me three trainers were arriving from the Kanto region.' This man replied. 'I'm guessing they're you three.' the man guessed.

I didn't know what to say, but professor Oak probably meant us, I didn't know any other trainers that were on their way here, well besides Leaf and Liam, but that was only two, not three.

The man turned and walked away, I didn't know whether to follow him or stay put.

He turned back to face us.

'Why don't you join me in my lab?' He asked.

We followed quickly rushing up behind him as he led the way across the small town and into his lab.

It wasn't as grand outside as professor Oaks, it also looked a little smaller.

We went in and found out the floor was tiled the same colour as this man's shirt, the walls were white and there were six large white bookshelves all staked with books. At the back was a white table with three silver cases on it, at the back on the left wall was a machine that looked like it once held three Pokéballs, but they were no longer present. There was one other person in here, a girl, she was reading a book and taking notes.

This man turned to face us as we neared the back of the lab. Then it clicked.

'I am professor Robert Elm.' The man said. He tried to sound important, he probably was here, but his look did not suit how he tried to seem, big and intimidating were the opposite of how he seemed.

Of course this was the professor of this region, Professor Oak once mentioned that all other regions had other professors with their own speciality. But this professor Elm, seemed all too clumsy and quick-paced, like he was trying too hard.

'I had to catch these three earlier this morning, Samuel gave me almost no time to prepare for you three, there were trainers starting today who have already left for their journey, but who knows, you may meet them.' Professor Elm stated.

Three trainers had already started today, to be fair it was the afternoon, I gained my Pokemon in Kanto, early in the morning.

'Professor, you said these three.' Camilla pointed out. 'What did you mean these three?' Camilla asked.

Professor Elm went to one of the cases on the table and opened it up.

Inside were three Pokéballs.

'Inside each of these Pokéballs is one of the starter Pokemon new trainers are given to start their journey.'but I wasn't sure how many Brock had.

I thought back to how it was when I only had Blastoise, but when it was a Squirtle. I had been so happy that I had my first Pokemon, but the trouble with this was I would have six Pokemon and not the one.

So we were being given another Pokemon, that would bring my team up to seven and Camilla's would be up to six. Could I carry seven Pokemon?

I looked to my belt and realized there were only six pockets for Pokéballs. Although since Pikachu wasn't technically in his Pokéball, I could carry another, right?

Brock and Camilla looked at me with puzzled looks before something hit me.

'Start their journey?' I asked.

'Yes, you're starting your journey through Johto.' Professor Elm told us. 'You have to start anew in every region.' He added.

'Start anew?' Brock asked.

'All the Pokemon you caught in Kanto will not be allowed to travel with you through Johto.' professor Elm explained.

'What?' All three of us exclaimed in unison.

'Every Pokemon you caught in Kanto will have to stay there.' The professor told us.

I looked at Pikachu, I wouldn't be allowed to travel with my best friend through this region, or any other, who knows when I'd see him again.

'Pika?' He asked confused before he hung his head with his ears low.

As if we didn't have enough goodbyes with Marowak leaving, now we'd have to leave all of our other Pokemon.

All my Pokéballs wriggled in denial, I couldn't face my other Pokemon, saying goodbye to Pikachu would be hard enough.

'This machine will transport your Pokéballs to Samuels lab, then you can obtain your first Pokemon of the Johto region.' professor Elm told us.

This was probably orders of the Pokemon league, they were in charge of what happened in each region, but they knew as much as anyone, that a bond with your Pokemon was a life-long partnership and now they were just going to take it away from us?

All the time I spent with each of my Pokemon was precious and now all I would have left would be memories, but, I'd never forget the times I spent battling and training with each of them, but to let some go who I'd only recently had would seem unfair to them.

I took each Pokéball off my belt and put them on a machine that held six Pokéballs in a circle.

I took Pikachu off my shoulder and placed him on the machine.

I took my bag off and found Pikachu's Pokéball out of my bag.

He looked at me in confusion.

I could feel the tears coming, saying goodbye to my best friend, who knew when I'd see him again.

'Pikachu...' I started. My voice started to break as the tears began to fall. 'I am unable to...' I stopped trying to regain my strength, so I could get the words out without breaking down. '...take you on my journey with me through the Johto region. I know you don't like it, but trust me, I need you to go inside your Pokéball for a few moments, you will be with professor Oak in a minute, I need you take care of all my other Pokemon.' I said.

Pikachu looked at me, with eyes that looked sad. If Pikachu started to cry I wouldn't be able to hold myself back from crying along with him.

I saw his eyes were starting to water and a tear escaped his eyes.

He leaped into my arms and we embraced for a few seconds, both of us crying.

I was hardly aware of my friends behind me. I didn't care that saw me this low, I had seen Camilla in a worse place than I was in and Brock had been in a pretty bad place too, so I was sure they didn't mind.

I let go of Pikachu as soon as he stopped hugging me he put on a brave smile before pressing the button on his Pokéball, he got sucked in and I put it on the machine my other Pokéballs were on.

Professor Elm pressed a button and my Pokéballs disappeared.

I suddenly felt naked.

I hadn't been without Pokemon for almost two whole years. It felt weird not to have any Pokemon on my person. I didn't remember feeling like this before. I wasn't exited like when I was about to get my first Pokemon. I was instead a little sad.

I hoped that once professor Oak received my Pokemon he let Pikachu out immediately. I knew Pikachu hated being in a Pokéball. He'd probably let himself out when he got to the lab.

I stood away from the machine.

Camilla was up next, she placed her Pokéballs on the Machine and had a short farewell to he own Pikachu, they also had an embrace before her Pikachu went inside its Pokéball and professor Elm sent her Pokemon to professor Oak.

Brock put his Pokéballs on the machine with no hard goodbyes, it was lucky for him, but he looked sad that he had to let his Pokemon go, he did have them longer than Camilla and I had ours, probably put together.

Camilla and I had a strong bond with our Pikachu, we had experienced aura or ESP-in Camilla's case-with our Pokemon.

We had to try and stay positive, we were getting a new Pokemon, ones we had never seen before, the starter Pokemon that people who start in new Bark town receive their first Pokemon.

'There are three Pokéballs on that desk, why don't you each pick one?' Professor Elm asked.

I saw the three Pokéballs that were still in the case on the desk, each one was the same, so no-one knew which one we would get.

Professor Elm went on the opposite side of the desk to us.

'They include, Chikorita, the leaf Pokemon, Cyndaquil, the fire mouse Pokemon, and Totodile, the big jaw Pokemon.' Professor Elm explained, taking out each one individually before placing them on the table as he said their names.

'Camilla, why don't you pick first?' I asked.

I remembered almost two years ago, when I asked Rachel to go first and my mind screamed at me, but now it wasn't screaming, in fact it was silent, I wasn't all that fussed on who I got, but I know Brock would be the last to pick.

Camilla picked the easy option and took the Pokéball in front of her, I took the Pokéball in front of me, and Brock picked the Pokéball in front of him.

The first to let out their Pokemon was Brock.

He let out his new Pokemon.

Totodile came out and ran on the spot with a happy cry, it instantly looked at Brock and made a second happy cry once it saw its new friend.

We had seen Totodile once before, Akari had one.

We all took out or Pokédexes to scan Totodile since we couldn't in the Orange islands.

_'Totodile, the big jaw Pokemon. Be careful around a playful Totodile! It tends to nibble on friends as a sign of affection, but its jaws are strong enough to cause serious harm.' _The Pokédex told us. Looks like Brock found another Pokemon that would be great for his breeding skills.

'Akari has one of those.' Camilla said.

I remembered, Camilla battled Akari's Totodile. Akari said she enjoyed the battle and that Camilla had been the rival she was looking for, I was a little sad, but glad that Camilla now had something to look forward to, she had found a purpose to battle, other that just following me around the regions.

So, this is where Akari got her Totodile from, maybe she had got from professor Elm, or she had found it in the wild.

I knew that finding starter Pokemon in the wild was rare, but I found a Charmander, but that's because it was battling against its sibling for its fathers affection, but now it was a Charizard, and in Charicific valley.

So it wasn't that impossible for Akari to stumble upon a wild Totodile.

'You have a grass type though.' Professor Elm said. Not that type match ups mattered, I'd beaten a Pokemon when my Pokemon had a type disadvantage.

Camilla then let out Chikorita, this was a Pokemon I hadn't seen before.

It was on all fours and had a pale green body on the end of each of its legs is has a single small white pointy toe. It has a small tail. Around its neck are pointy green buds that look like they could form a necklace. It had large arch-shaped eyes, that had red irises. It had a leaf as long as its body on top of its head that extended backwards.

I looked up at Camilla. Camilla got down to its height and smiled, but Chikorita didn't seem to take much notice. It turned its head away from Camilla.

'Yeah, this Chikorita seems to have some trust issues, you might have some trouble with it.' Professor Elm said.

That information might have been helpful a bit earlier.

We all took out our Pokédexes nevertheless.

_'Chikorita, the leaf Pokemon. Chikorita brandishes its leaf in battle to fend off a foe. When it does this, the leaf gives off a lovely aroma that calms everyone down.' _The Pokédex informed.

Now was my turn to let out my partner Pokemon.

I let out my Pokemon and it was small. It had a cream underbelly and dark green on the top. It had four short legs, on the back legs there were a single pointy toe, much like Chikorita. It had a long snout, its eyes were closed and arched. I didn't know if it was awake or asleep. There was a line on its back, like its back had been open and that was the scar that hadn't fully healed yet.

It turned its face up to me and cried out in delight.

_'Cyndaquil, the fire mouse Pokemon. The protective flames on Cyndaquil's back are an indicator of its mood. A sputtering fire means it's tired, while anger makes the flames burn high and hot.' _Our Pokédexes said.

I felt sorry for Camilla, her Pokemon would have some trust issues with it and it would be hard for her to catch another Pokemon if this Chikorita was going to be like that to her for a while.

I know Camilla would be able to handle it, she was a brilliant Pokemon trainer, she was as good if not better than I was, each time I battled her it had ended in a draw. Our battling skills were easily matched.

Maybe at the end of our journey before the Pokemon league, we could have another Pokemon battle and we would see who was better then. Camilla and I each had a special gift, my aura and her ESP, I didn't know how to control it and neither did she. I hope they didn't come into play when we battled, I don't know what would happen if they occurred at the same time during our battle, but I knew the use of it drained us both loads.

A ringing noise came from behind professor Elm, he turned rather clumsily and answered the call.

'Hello.' He said.

A muffled gruff voice came from the other end, I could hear or see the other person, but o=i knew it was important from what professor Elm exclaimed next.

'Fascinating.'

A few more muffled sounds came from the other person.

'I would love to co...' professor Elm started.

He turned to us three.

'Actually, I have three trainers here that I'm sure wouldn't mind coming to collect it for me.' Professor Elm said turning back round.

A few more muffles were heard and I made out one word "egg".

'Okay, nice to see you again, I'll get back to you with my results once I find out what it is.' professor Elm said before the screen switched off.

He turned around to us and before we could say anything he spoke up.

'I have this friend called Mr. Pokemon, or that's what everyone else calls him. He has reason to believe that he has discovered an egg that has never been seen before, it may be a new Pokemon, he wants me to examine it and get back to him with my findings.' Professor Elm started. 'In order to do that I need the egg here, that is where you three come in.'

This professor was giving us a task now?

'I would like you three to go and collect this egg and bring it back to me, once you have you can continue on your journey.' Professor Elm said.

We were taking on a task to retrieve something that was quite a way off.

'Mr. Pokemon's house is not that far past Cherrygrove city, which is the next city over.' Professor Elm said.

'You want us to collect the egg from Mr. Pokemon and bring it here?' I asked, just so I was clear on what he was asking of us.

'You'd be doing me a massive favour, and who knows, you might meet some Pokemon you haven't encountered before, it would be great to fill up that Pokédex you were given by professor Oak.' Professor Elm said. 'And you know what, ill give you each five Pokéballs, so you can catch any Pokemon you might want to add to your team.

'Well, as I live and breath, Jordan Hale.' A voice behind us said.

All three of us turned and we were met with a man who looked roughly the same age as my dad, but this guy had longer black hair and it was in a mess, he had light brown eyes, they almost looked golden. He was wearing a black top with a red leather jacket that had a white stripe on either side of his zip. He had dark grey trousers that had more pockets than I wanted to count. He was also wearing white shoes.

I didn't know who this guy was as I had never seen him before.

'Do I know you?' I asked.

'Gold.' Professor Elm said. 'What are you doing here?'

'Red said his boy would be here soon a few days ago, and I knew this is the first place he would go. Plus professor Oak said that Jordan should be here today.' Gold replied.

Red? This guy knew my dad?

'You know Mr. Red?' Camilla asked.

'Camilla Foster.' Gold exclaimed. 'Didn't imagine seeing you here. I didn't know you'd travel with Jordan, since your family's feud with his.' Gold said.

'Family?' Camilla asked.

'Feud?' I asked.

'Brock Harrison, the former Pewter City gym leader, also travelling with Jordan Hale?' Gold asked rhetorically, ignoring our questions.

I wanted answers and it didn't seem like we were getting any at this current moment.

'Mr Gold.' I started. 'Can we get some questions answered?' I asked.

'Of course, Jordan Hale, what would you like to know?' Gold asked.

'First please just call me Jordan, no Hale. Second, how do you know my father?' I asked.

'Red travelled through Johto the same year I did. We met up and battled a few times, but he bested me every time.' Gold responded.

I never knew my dad travelled though this region as well as Kanto, I wondered if he travelled through any others.

'Now about this family feud?' Camilla asked.

'Your family and Jordan's family didn't like each-other, how did they let you travel with him?' Gold asked.

'Why didn't our families get along?' I asked.

'Well Red got them in trouble a few times, he got them out of it, but he was always the reason they were in trouble in the first place.' Gold explained.

That cleared up why Camilla's foster parents didn't like me, I must have been a lot like my father, and they didn't want Camilla to make the same mistakes as they did, even though they weren't her real family, the chances of her getting in trouble because of me was high, but I was determined to never let Camilla fall into danger ever again. Her family trusted me now, a bit of a mistake, but they let Camilla make her own mistakes and learn from them, not that she'd run back to her family after her life had been in danger many times.

I wondered if Camilla's real parents knew my dad, or knew of him. I'm sure they did, my dad did meddle with Team Rocket, Camilla's parents were involved, so it was possible that they knew him, but they were just two of the many people he couldn't save.

'Why were you waiting to meet me?' I asked Gold.

This was bugging me, out of all people why did Gold want to meet me?

'Red has told me little about you, he told me, if I asked nicely, you'd tell me about your journey from when you started in Kanto to now, not leaving anything out.' Gold replied.

'They are requested a task that I've given them.' Professor Elm interjected.

He wanted this task done as soon as possible. I understood his point of view, he was a researcher and this mystery egg would help him make groundbreaking discoveries.

'Come now, professor. Its getting dark, I'm sure they can start on their task for you tomorrow, you guys can stay with me, as long as I get to hear this story of yours.' Gold said.

All three of us returned our newly received Pokemon and followed Gold to his house, it was getting dark, the sun had set a while ago, the breeze was cool and I couldn't imagine cleaner air, it was like there was a filter surrounding New Bark Town and it just gave this place clean air.

Gold lead us to one of the houses, in the dark they all looked pretty similar.

As soon as we entered I saw that there was a wooden rectangle table not far in front of us, in the kitchen was a woman leaning against a counter sipping a hot drink.

Past the table was an archway that led to a room that had two green couches facing each-other a small wooden coffee table with a green tablecloth over it.

The room didn't have a TV, just a few cabinets around the room.

The woman made their way to the living room. She sat down on one of the couches, we followed her and sat on the opposite couch.

This woman looked at us, like she was studying us, it was unnerving as we had no idea who she was or why she was looking as us in that way.

She looked at Camilla more than anyone else.

'Jordan Hale.' She started still looking at Camilla, you have aura, like your father, and you Camilla many last names have ESP, like you great-grandmother.' The woman said.

'What?' I asked.

Huh?' Camilla asked immediately after me.

'How do you know that?' Brock asked.

'I have mild aura abilities, not as good as these two, but I can still sense a few things' The woman replied.

'How do you know Camilla's secret?' I asked.

'I don't know her secret, I just know she has many last names, but she doesn't want any of them.' This woman replied.

'It's the same way I know that you died, just over a year ago, but now you are back.' The woman said.

'Crystal.' Gold scolded coming from the kitchen with a tray of four teas.

'I want to hear their story as much as you.' Crystal replied.

'Then stop spoiling it, plus I want to hear it from them.' Gold said as he sat down and placed the tray on the coffee table.

I started telling Gold and Crystal our story, Brock and Camilla interjected where appropriate and at time inappropriate, they also took over a few times, from their own perspective, it was nice to hear their side of the story, it was reassuring that I didn't have to rattle on and on with the story.

Gold and Crystal didn't exclaim for any reason, their expressions changed loads, but no noise from them the whole way through.

As the story ended, I had finished my tea.

'You've had quite the adventure.' Gold commented.

'And you say there were two friends you've travelled with and three others that consider you rivals to them?' Crystal asked rhetorically and you've also seen the three legendary birds and Mewtwo and the Mythical Pokemon Mew?' Crystal asked.

All three of us nodded in unison.

'We also saw Lugia.' I added, forgot that part of the story when I saved Shamouti island and thwarted Lawrence III.

'What?' Brock asked as Crystal and Gold looked at me in shock.

'You saw the legendary Pokemon, Lugia?' Crystal asked.

'Yeah.' Camilla replied.

She looked at me, I knew she was asking if we should tell them about the prophecy or not. I gave her a look that said no. I didn't want Brock to know about it, the dreams Camilla and I shared were enough, I didn't want people to worry, plus it may not happen for years to come.

'You two have simultaneous dreams of the same place, but from your own perspectives.' Crystal more or less stated. 'Don't dwell on them too much, its not like they are all true, the future can always change.' Crystal reminded us.

She didn't know that the dreams we had in Kanto came true when we met Mewtwo and I had another one when I was stuck under Lawrence III's ship, thankfully my uncle had used his aura and helped me out from it.

I hoped Crystal was right, I didn't like my aura dreams coming true, sometimes they overwhelmed me.

Crystal said not to dwell on them, maybe they were nothing, and even if they were something we wouldn't have to worry until the time came, but that didn't stop us from losing sleep on them.

'Maybe you guys should get some sleep, I understand you have a task to undertake for the professor tomorrow. I have a spare room with three beds upstairs.' Gold said.

'You have three kids?' I asked.

'No.' Gold chuckled. 'I have two boys, but Crystal has a girl about their age, they have sleepovers loads, I cant say how happy I am that they left this morning.'

'So who are they?' Brock asked.

'Ethan and Jimmy are their names, they each got a Pokemon from the professor this morning and left rather quickly.' Gold replied. 'A year younger than you two.' Gold directed the last statement at Camilla and myself.

'You might meet them on your journey.' Crystal said. 'While Ethan will be travelling by himself, Jimmy will be travelling with Marina, those two are inseparable.' Crystal added.

'Yeah, Ethan is more adventurous. Marina likes to take her time, and Jimmy will stay with her.' Gold replied.

'Sounds like two people we know.' I said mostly to Camilla.

She giggled remembering Leaf and Liam, how Liam wouldn't leave Leaf, even though he did, he vowed he would never leave Leaf again.

Everyone but they knew they liked each other, but I knew Leaf hadn't fully forgiven Liam yet, and neither had I, but my relationship with Liam was ranked as "friendship", not "complicated" as they put it,

'Sounds like two people I know.' Brock said looking at us.

Camilla and I blushed furiously looking away from each other.

Gold laughed out loud while Crystal laughed inwardly.

'Don't mind Gold, I think its cute.' Crystal told us leaning toward us both.

'What's cute?' Camilla asked.

'We're friends.' I replied.

'If you say so.' Crystal replied reclining back to her original position.

Gold had just stopped laughing.

'Better get off to bed.' Crystal told us.

All three of us made our way upstairs and found the room we were supposed to stay in.

It looked like the beds had just been made, so I wouldn't be sleeping in someone else's bed.

The room was quite large, so there was loads of space between the beds.

I got ready for bed.

As soon as I got into bed and my bed hit the pillow I was asleep, today had been a long day.

_I didn't know what had happened, but I knew I wasn't where I was a few seconds ago. I was standing behind a bench where a little boy was sitting._

_Camilla stood next to me,I knew it was Camilla, but she looked a little different._

_This little boy had blonde hair, a red t-shirt and blue shorts, he was swinging his legs back and forth, he had not noticed our presence._

_I couldn't see his face as it was facing the same direction as us._

_'This will be a good place for you to rest.' The boy said._

_Was he talking to us._

_'They won't harm you ever again.'_

_This boy wasn't making any sense._

_The boy then put a Pokéball to the side of him. I instantly recognised it as the GS ball. It was yellow on the top and white on the bottom and it had The letters "GS" etched onto the front, just above the button._

_I now understood he wasn't talking to us, he was talking to whatever Pokemon was in the GS ball._

_'The GS ball.' Camilla whispered._

_The boy turned._

_He got off the bench and grabbed the GS ball, like the he held the Pokemon-that was inside that Pokéball-life in his hands, which he did sort of._

_'Who are you?' The boy asked, slowly backing away from us._

_'We don't want to hurt you, or the Pokemon that resides in that Pokéball.' I replied._

_'We want to help.' Camilla affirmed._

_'That's what the bad men said.' the boy replied._

_This boy was being very cautious, he was keeping us busy talking to us, he definitely knew how to get away from someone._

_I unclipped all six Pokéballs from my belt and showed them to him._

_I placed them all on the bench and stepped back._

_'Would a bad man put his Pokéballs on a bench for a protective, cautious little boy to take if he chose to?' I asked gaining the boys interest._

_The boy didn't answer._

_He instead moved closer to the Pokéballs I left on the bench. _

_'You'll give me one of your own Pokemon?' He asked._

_'I offer a trade.' I replied. 'And until you have picked a Pokemon, I will not take the rest back.' I continued._

_The boy looked at me, then at Camilla, she gave him an encouraging smile._

_He looked at the Pokéballs, then he looked closer as if he knew what Pokemon was in which Pokéball._

_I knew, but I had them for almost a year now, this boy had seen them for a few moments._

_'So this is where you've been hiding.' A gruff voice said from behind the boy._

_A man who stood tall and quite skinny was a few feet behind the boy, the voice didn't match the man. He wore sunglasses, but you could see the fire behind his eyes._

_'Why don't we help you?' The man asked. His voice contained evil in it._

_I took all my Pokéballs back and help one in my hand ready for a battle, that seemed inevitable._

_Camilla unclipped one of her Pokéballs and held it, also ready for a battle._

_'Do you trust us?' Camilla asked the boy._

_'Yes...' He said hesitantly._

_'Then stand behind us.' Camilla replied._

_The boy quickly stood behind us._

_'Don't think you can help the boy, you're just children, and children should know not to play with fire.' The man said throwing up a Pokéball into the air._

I woke up and wondered what that dream was about.

I saw light was peeking through the curtains.

I sat up in my bed.

'I trust you slept well.' Gold said appearing in the doorway. 'Your clothes are clean and dry.' He said handing me the clothes I had on yesterday.

I didn't know he would wash and dry these.

'It wasn't too bad.' I lied. I didn't want him to know about my aura dream.

'You're friends are downstairs, they insisted that you weren't woken.' Gold said.

He left me with that, and I thought back to my aura dream.

It wasn't like my others, it was just some information, nothing bad happened in it, not like it normally did in my aura dreams.

I got dressed and made my way downstairs.

This was officially the start of my Johto journey.

**Jordan: So big changes this chapter.**

**Camilla: More sad goodbyes.**

**Jordan: The next has more introduction.**

**Camilla: So, until then.**

**Chapter Four: A Brother & a Spark**


	4. My Brother & a Spark

**Jordan: Here we go again**

**Camilla: Big companies own Pokemon**

**Jordan: Not the author of this series**

**Camilla: And away we go**

A Brother & a Spark

Gold was kind enough to let us have breakfast before we left.

I didn't tell Camilla or Brock about my dream, it didn't seem necessary as it didn't seem like a bad one. It just felt like I had gained something I might need to know in the future.

As soon as we finished breakfast, Gold let us go on our way.

We stopped by the lab and professor Elm went over his request for us once again. I didn't forget it, but it was best to make sure we knew exactly what we were supposed to do.

As soon as we left the lab I looked out to the route that would take us to the next city, apparently on the other end was Cherrygrove city.

I could have a guess of why it was called Cherrygrove, but that guess would be right because of obvious reasons.

I wondered if we would encounter any Pokemon that we'd like to catch on this route.

This route was not like route 1 in Kanto, especially because it wasn't straight forward, it had twists and turns and the trees looked like they had been placed randomly, there was no straight path to Cherrygrove.

I was glad we had a new Pokemon, I wondered how it would be having Cyndaquil, this was my second starter type, but this time I was taking care of it from a lower level than Charmander was when I first received him.

I caught Charmander, whereas I was given Cyndaquil, but I think we already had a good relationship.

Camilla never had a starter Pokemon before and I didn't want to say anything, but her first experience with Chikorita didn't go so well, but I knew there would be something that would make them become the best of friends, eventually they would become almost inseparable, there is no bond like that of a trainer and their first Pokemon.

Brock normally used rock types, but at the moment he had a water type, something that was strong against the type he specialised in, but I guess this was good for Brock he was going to use a Pokemon who's type he was not familiar with. He had used fire before when he was given Suzy's Vulpix, although it was weak against his preferred type he still cared for it as much as he did with the rest of his Pokemon.

I wondered if we would catch any Pokemon on this route, it seemed likely, on the first route I went on Rachel captured a Pidgey and there were only two of us there, there are three of us now, so, it was likely we would.

I was curious about this route, it definitely differed from the first route in Kanto, but Brock and Camilla had never travelled their first route as a new trainer with one Pokemon.

It also felt strange travelling with just two other people, I had almost always travelled with three other people, we had been in a group of four.

'So, Jordan, what new Pokemon are you hoping to encounter?' Camilla asked.

We hadn't spoken since we started on this route, and Camilla was the one to break the silence.

I remember the Pokemon that we saw on Butwal, I didn't really fancy any of those Pokemon, maybe there were others here that I would use instead. Those Pokemon did seem nice and all, but I just didn't think they were for me.

'I'm not sure.' I replied.

There were loads more, but as soon as I see a Pokemon I want, I would catch it.

But that was the same with everyone, you see a Pokemon you like and you capture it and form a partnership.

'I'm sure we'll all find Pokemon that we want to spend this journey with.' Brock said.

I knew he was right, we had lost some good friends, but we would create new partnerships with other Pokemon.

This road was bare, even with Pokemon, we hadn't seen one and we had been travelling for an hour at least.

I heard a rustle to my left and looked in that direction. A Pokemon must be near but I didn't see it.

Brock and Camilla also looked in the same direction.

'Did you see that?' Camilla asked.

'What?' I asked back.

'It looked like a brown tail, but I didn't know if it was a Pokemon or not.'

'You just saw its tail?' Brock asked.

'Yeah.' Camilla replied.

We hadn't stopped looking in the direction the supposed Pokemon was.

Two dark brown ears with pink insides poked up above the grass.

The ears twitched left and right.

I got my Pokédex out and waited for the Pokemon to reveal itself.

It then poked its hole body from the grass and I saw the Pokemon was primarily brown and quite plump. It had a cream ring on its stomach and stubby little arms with three digits on them. Its feet were also small and also had three digits. Its tail had dark brown rings going the whole way down it, the tail was thin at the start, but threw thicker and rounded at the end. It had two small black eyes and looked at us curiously.

_'Sentret, the scout Pokemon. Sentret always sleep in groups of two or more so one of them can keep watch and alert its friends if danger threatens. When alone, they're too nervous to sleep.' _Our Pokédexes said.

If Leaf was here she would tell us more facts about Sentret, but at the moment she was travelling with Liam giving him a second chance.

She forgave him pretty quickly, I hadn't exactly forgiven him yet, even though we talked and had almost the whole morning once we got back from me winning the Orange league.

But I knew Liam would never hurt Leaf again, so I guess I could forgive him, but it would have to wait until I saw him again.

This Pokemon turned and quickly rushed back into the tall grass, then it was gone from our sight.

That was not how I expected our first encounter with a Pokemon to go.

'That was a little disappointing.' I said. I mean we got to see a new Pokemon, but it wasn't for long.

We kept walking.

Maybe we'd see a few more Pokemon before the route ended. We didn't know how much father this route went, but it seemed almost as long as my very first route at the moment, but I still couldn't see the exit up ahead, so I guess it went on for a little while longer, we may not even be halfway through the route.

If this was anything like the cycling road and its length, it would take us at least another hour to reach Cherrygrove, thank goodness we didn't have to walk the cycling road, but we hit a bump at the end where I had to battle three punk trainers, one after the other.

Why was I comparing this place to Kanto, this was a completely different region, but I had nothing else to compare it to, I had only had one journey and the only things I could compare this region to was my home region.

'I'm sure we'll see more Pokemon before the route is up.' Brock said. 'This route is apparently longer than some in this region, it appears as if the routes in this region are quite long, none are really that short, the distances between the towns and cities surpass that of Kanto.' Brock continued.

So the distance between the time between each settlement would be longer. I wouldn't mind, besides Camilla might actually find a dream while we're here in Johto, that would be great for her and I would support her the whole way, and even if I wasn't able to compete in the Pokemon league this year there was always next year, its not like the Pokemon league was going anywhere, it had been there since my dad claimed the title all those years ago and it would still be there at least a couple years after a new trainer claimed the title of champion.

First, before I thought of taking on the Pokemon league again I had to battle the eight gym leaders in this region and obtain the badges for beating them, I had no idea where the first gym was or what type it was. I had a feeling that my first badge would not be in Cherrygrove, although it is a city it seemed like there was more to it instead of being a gym there was probably something a little more interesting.

I saw a new Pokemon, there was a small group of them scurrying in a hurried sense.

They were primarily red, they had a large round back abdomen which had five black dots on them, their head was remarkably smaller, but was also round. From the large abdomen it had three blue legs protruding on each side, the legs ended with white round feet each with a tiny horn on the end of each foot. It had large eyes, with a black pupil. It had two small black antenna protruding from atop its head, they pointed up and then backwards.

It seemed that these Pokemon were trying to get away from something.

I took out my Pokédex before they went out of sight.

_'Ledyba, the five star Pokemon. Ledyba gives off a fragrant fluid that it uses to communicate with others. It changes the scent to indicate its emotions.'_

I wish Leaf was here to give us more insight, but once again we were left in the dark.

'Leaf would give us a small snippet of information on this Pokemon that the Pokédex didn't tell us.' Camilla said, voicing my thoughts.

'She was very informative.' I affirmed.

'Didn't those Ledyba seem a little scared, like there was a sort of prey coming after them? ' Brock asked.

Now that he mentioned it, I didn't exactly want to stay and find out what was chasing the Ledyba, but it wasn't as scary, as soon as the Pokemon emerged.

This Pokemon seemed a little creepy, on its light green back was what looked like a frowned face, it had two black round eyes and a black frowned mouth. From this green abdomen there were three legs that protruded from each side, these legs were yellow with a black line where the knees or joints were. The back of its abdomen was black, like a black semi circle, but it only covered a small portion of its abdomen. On its head was a small white horn, it had two large black eyes with white pupils, It also had two small red pincers on the front of its head.

I had kept my Pokédex out and scanned this Pokemon before it scuttled away.

_'Spinarak, the string spit Pokemon. Spinarak uses its web like another sensory organ. It can read the vibration of the strands to tell what's happening nearby.'_

I didn't understand how a group of Ledyba was trying to get away from one Spinarak when the Ledyba were slightly bigger, but with Pokemon size meant nothing, my Squirtle took on an Onix and my Pikachu took on a Gyarados.

Plus the face on the Spinaraks back was enough to creep me out. I would probably run if a Spinarak was chasing me and that was only one Spinarak. I guess there would be more at night, that would make this place seem creepy and a place I did not fancy staying tonight, I hoped we got to Cherrygrove before long.

'It doesn't seem like there is much going on in Cherrygrove, its just a city, that I know of, it will be somewhere to stay before we me make the last trek to Mr Pokemon's house.' Brock informed us.

'How far is Mr Pokemons house from Cherrygrove?' Camilla asked.

'About a days walk.' Brock replied.

I think it would be best to spend whatever was left of the day when we reached Cherrygrove in Cherrygrove, I didn't fancy spending the night outside when Spinarak could be around.

I know I had been around scarier Pokemon, but I knew almost nothing about Spinarak. It was best I didn't get up close and personal with them.

Ledyba and Sentret seemed like okay Pokemon, I wouldn't mind spending the night with them, but its just that Spinarak was beginning to make my skin crawl.

A few seconds later a few Sentret ran past us, they looked like they were in a hurry, something must have scared them.

We turned and I almost fell over, a Pokemon loomed over me and I moved out the way.

This Pokemon was primarily blue and reptilian. It stood on its hind legs which were quite small, its feet had three claws at the end, on its knees were blue protrusions that looked like pads. On its stomach it had two cream patches that created a v shape. It had powerful arms with pad shapes on it, two from the shoulder to the elbow, one past its elbow and one on its wrist. Its hands have five digits and each digit has a claw on it. It has a large jaw with a cream underside and a few teeth were sticking out from its upper and lower jaw. Its eyes were large and yellow. Atop its head were red spikes, it also had a set of these spikes on its back and another set near the end of its tail

I took out my Pokédex to scan this Pokemon.

_'Feraligatr, the big jaw Pokemon and the last evolved form of Totodile. Feraligatr uses its gaping maw as an intimidation tactic, Its powerful legs propel it into a high-speed charge.' _

I looked at Brock, his Totodile would one day look like this large intimidating Pokemon.

'Feraligatr, use hydro pump on those Sentret.'

A man around twenty years old followed behind the Feraligatr.

The thing that shocked me about the man the most was the red hair he had. I knew exactly who that was, it was my half brother.

'Silver?' I asked before I could stop myself.

The man stopped dead in his tracks.

He turned slowly and I saw the look in his eyes, it was confusion before it morphed into a glare, it didn't faze me.

'Look, kid, I don't have time to chat or ask how you know me, I'm a bit busy,.' Silver said.

'Too busy to see your mother, Delia Hale?' I asked.

Silver looked at me his face looked in shock and hurt.

I swear I saw a bit of remorse in his face before he his intensified his glare toward me.

'That woman is a liar, and so is your father.' Silver said, hie tone had a hint of malice, like he loathed his own mother.

'They loved you.' I replied.

'Whatever, two things for you kid.'

'I'm Jo...'

'I don't care who you are, and stay out of my way, if you interfere again, you'll have wished you hadn't.' Silver said before he took off, before I could call out to him he was gone.

I had now met my half brother and he was hunting down Sentret.

It wasn't exactly how I pictured this meeting would go, I didn't think he'd be happy to see me, but he seemed dark, darker that my parents told me he was.

Our meeting was less than a minute, but he seemed darker than anyone else I had ever met.

Okay maybe he was as dark as Giovanni, like father like son, but then again I didn't know what his relationship with his father was, was he helping his father behind the scenes, if so where was he when I infiltrated the Silph. Co or when I had my gym battle with Giovanni?

Silver seemed very mysterious and powerful.

I didn't want to get in his way, just as long as he didn't get in my way.

'Are you okay, Jordan?' Camilla asked placing her hand on my shoulder.

I felt myself relax and unclench my fists. I hadn't noticed I had them clenched.

'Yeah, I think so, but I don't like him.' I replied.

'He doesn't seem like someone I would concern myself with, he made his intentions clear, Jordan.' Brock told me.

'Yeah, but I don't like him, not because he despises me or my dad, but because he despises his mother, my mother, our mother.' I replied.

My mother was the most caring person in the whole world, I don't know how anyone could not love her?

I didn't want to dwell on this, I wanted to focus on my journey. I wanted to focus on finding more Pokemon native to Johto, more Pokemon to become friends with. I wanted to focus on collecting more gym badges so I could enter the Pokemon league at the end of this year. But this time I would be more prepared.

'Aaah.' We heard a scream and not a second later a girl a little older than Camilla and I and a little younger than Brock ran toward us, looking behind her.

She looked toward us and her face morphed into shock, I tried to move out the way as she tried to stop, but she bumped into me and we both fell to the ground.

This girl had light brown hair that fell to her elbows, she had two orange spheres that had brown hair pointing upward away from them. She was wearing a mint green knee-length dress that had a white frill at the bottom, the dress was also white near the top, like she had a small white coat over it, but the white was short sleeved. A red ribbon was tied at the neckline of the dress. The girl had light brown eyes. She was also wearing white flats with a green gem on the front.

The clothes looked like she had worn them everyday for the past few weeks and had had a few tumbles in them too.

'Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry.' The girl rushed out as she slowly got up.

'Wait, why are you running?' Camilla asked as Brock helped me up.

'Trying to get away.' The girl replied.

'From who?' I asked.

'From something, not someone.' The girl replied.

'A Pokemon?' Camilla guessed.

'No, that's...never mind.' The girl said.

She obviously didn't want to tell us, that was understandable, she didn't know who we were and we didn't know who she was.

I felt an obligation to introduce myself.

'My name is Jordan Hale.' I said. I almost said this is Pikachu, but he wasn't here, he was at professor Oaks lab.

I frowned at the memory.

If the girl notice the change in my mood she didn't indicate that she noticed.

'I'm Camilla Fo...Brook.' Camilla said, she just told this girl her real name, a girl she hardly knew, but maybe she wasn't trying to hide from her past any more.

Sure Brock and I knew, but we were her friends. This girl was a stranger to us, but I guess we wouldn't be with this girl for long.

We'd find out her name, see if we could help her then be on our way.

'My name is Brock Harrison.' Brock introduced himself.

'I am Jasmine.' The girl said. She didn't give us her last name, there must be a reason, but I didn't want to press her if it was personal, she would have told us if she chose.

'Jasmine, if you tell us what it is you are trying to get away from we can help you.' Camilla said.

'How about we help you out in Cherrygrove?' Brock suggested.

Jasmine looked hesitant about that idea.

'It will be easier if you tell us when we are sitting down together.' Camilla encouraged.

We didn't want to scare Jasmine and pressure her, Camilla was the best not to push Jasmine, she was a girl, so Brock and I let her handle talking to Jasmine to persuade her.

Camilla steered Jasmine in the direction of the way we were facing, and she started walking. Brock and I walked behind them.

'I'm sorry about Pikachu.' Brock said after a few seconds of silence.

'Huh?' I asked.

'Even when we parted on Valencia Island you two were as close as any partnership of people and Pokemon I have seen, and I was a gym leader since I was ten years old. In those two years of being a gym leader no bond that I have seen has ever been stronger.' Brock started. 'It must have been hard saying goodbye and letting go.' Brock continued.

'It feels as if a big hole has been left, he wasn't just my Pokemon, he was my best friend.' I said.

'I thought that was me?' Brock joked.

'You know its different.' I told him.

'Yeah the bond I have with Onix is close to your bond with Pikachu, but Onix is considerably larger, but he and I spent loads of time together when I wasn't training at the gym or somewhere in Pewter. He was the first Pokemon I received and immediately we had a connection.'

I didn't doubt Brock's story, the first Pokemon you get always has an impact, Squirtle always had an impact with me, but for some reason Pikachu and I had a stronger connection.

Brock looked at my expression.

'I know, its not the same feeling getting a Pokemon than catching your first one.'

'Even more when you have type disadvantage. I bet that was a wonderful feeling, you had caught a Pokemon you liked because of a previous experience with another trainers.' Brock said looking toward Camilla.

'Her Pikachu was so agile, I just wanted to show her that a water type shouldn't be underestimated.'

'But instead you liked how her Pikachu showed you what it could do.' Brock guessed.'Maybe it caught you off guard and you lost which made you want one more. It seems like Camilla is the one to thank for you having a best friend as a Pokemon.' Brock told me.

I never thought of it that way. If I won with my Squirtle against Camilla's Pikachu I may never have caught one of my own.

Did Camilla really have that much of an impact on me when I first started my journey ? Now she and I had been through so much together, we had seen the same amount of legendary and mythical Pokemon.

Camilla was originally going to be someone I was going to see every now and then on my journey, but since Cerulean she decided to travel with me.

'Thanks for understanding, Brock. Just think of all the Pokemon we'll encounter and befriend here in Johto though.' I said.

'This region is as alien to me as it is to you.' Brock reminded me.' But I have missed the travelling part of my journey.' I missed all your Orange island adventures, you'll have to tell me about them sometime.' Brock said.

As long as he reminded me as I'd probably forget.

'You've missed out on loads of fun Brocko, I almost died again.' I chuckled.

'Almost?' Brock asked 'Again?'

He did make a point , I died before. Only once though.

'Okay, I almost died a few times.' I said.

'Nothing new then.' Camilla said from in front of us.

'I'm surprised you haven't run away yet, Jasmine.' I said.

'Your adventures sound fun, except the dying part.' She replied.

'Well, I promised Camilla I'll never die again, so I'm still alive.' I told her.

'Jordan has never broken a promise, so if we say we promise to help you, we will.' Camilla said.

I looked forward to see if I could see Cherrygrove, but I couldn't see past an incline, we'd probably have to walk up, maybe we would be able to see Cherrygrove city from up there.

I wondered if the view would be as nice as when we first saw New Bark town.

The sky started to get dark.

The way it looked, there were only two towns in Kanto, it was nice to see a new town. I wondered if there were more towns in Johto than in Kanto, it was nice to see a quiet little place every now and then. Lavender was nice little town, but it was filled with so many events. We met Leaf after a few years, we infiltrated the lost tower to stop team Rocket, I almost died jumping from the top of the lost tower. I'd like to be in a town where there were no massive events. I know I'm apparently "the chosen one" along with Camilla, but I'd like life to calm down sometimes.

Even this route was filled with uncertainties. I met my half-brother who despised me as much as he did my parents, he was mysterious and I loathed him as much as he loathed me.

We had met a few new Pokemon which was a good experience and I was glad I was filling up the Pokédex.

We had met up with Jasmine who we had promised to help, but we had to reach Cherrygrove first and then she would sit us down and tell us her problem to see if we could help.

To be honest New Bark town, was quite eventful, we even had to say goodbye to our Pokemon, who we had travelled with for almost two years, save for my Aerodactyl, he spent more time with Lance than me. I had to leave my best friend behind, he was now in a separate region, but maybe he was having fun behind professor Oaks lab.

I wondered if everywhere we went was going to be as eventful as the previous three places we had been in in Johto.

I don't think I couldn't handle so many events at once, hopefully Cherrygrove would be calmer and we would be free of such events. If Jasmine travelled with us for a while I'm sure she'd leave after what we happened to run into.

I was sure Camilla would have after the few events after Cerulean, but she stayed with me, Brock had travelled with me through the events even after he got captured. Rachel had been with me since day one and she said she would travel with me no matter what. Leaf asked to travel with us even after all she heard I had been through. Tracey had just tagged along and he wasn't really that fazed by the events we had either.

We reached the top of the hill and I saw Cherrygrove, it wasn't that much further from where we were, that means the route was over.

Cherrygrove was quite big, but most of it was greenery, I thought it would be a big city, hustling and bustling like most cities were, this one looked bare though, like no-one lived here, the only signs of life was that the lights that had just turned on.

As we got closer I really understood why it was called Cherrygrove, there were groves of cherry trees dotted all over the place.

I looked around as we reached the bottom of the hill and the Pokemon centre was not that far from us, it was close enough I could see it.

That was convenient, the Pokemon centre was so close to the entrance of the city, why wasn't every Pokemon centre that close to the entrance, I bet it was so far away from the exit though. I mean if you came from the other way I'm sure it would be too far away. You had to walk all that way just to rest your Pokemon.

I didn't run, none of us did, this place seemed vacant, either that or everyone was inside, even at night some people were outside, in every town or city I visited someone was out at night at least a few people, but here, no-one.

We entered the Pokemon centre and there were a few people in here.

There were always people in the Pokemon centre.

My friends and I went to sit at a table I went to sit next to Camilla while Jasmine sat opposite her, Brock sat opposite me.

'Don't you guys have Pokemon?' Jasmine asked.

'We do.' Brock replied.

'We didn't let them out in the first route.' I continued.

'We didn't find any Pokemon to battle.' Camilla finished.

'Where did you get those Pokemon from?' Jasmine asked.

'Professor Elm.' I replied.

'We originally come from the Kanto region.' Brock told Jasmine, she looked at us in confusion.

'We travelled the Kanto region and then Blue told us of this neighbouring region...' I started.

'Wait, Blue? The Blue?' Jasmine asked. 'The Pokemon league Blue?' Jasmine asked.

Apparently Blue was known in both regions, he must have been a pretty great trainer to be recognised even in this region, maybe one day that would be me.

'Yeah... that's the one.' I replied.

'You know Blue?' Jasmine asked.

It seemed like she liked Blue.

'Who is Blue to you?' Camilla asked.

'A role model. I want to be known all over the region like him.' Jasmine replied.

I'm glad she kept her voice down if not we might have been the centre of attention, I did not want that, not now. I didn't want any recognition until I won at least my first Gym badge. Whenever or wherever it was.

'Why don't we get some rest now and we can talk about your problem in the morning?' Camilla suggested asking Jasmine.

Jasmine nodded, they both got up and made their way to nurse Joy for a room key.

As soon as they entered Brock turned to me.

'What's troubling you?' Brock asked.

I looked at him in shock.

'How do you know something is troubling me?' I asked.

'Jordan, I have known you before Camilla, I know when you are troubled.' Brock said.

'It's just the last dream I had.'

'An Aura dream?' He asked.

I nodded. 'But it was more informative than what my aura dreams are normally like.' I replied.

'Tomorrow we'll be on our way to see Mr. Pokemon, he might have information that is useful to you now. He might be able to tell you about some of the Gym leaders in this region.' Brock informed me.

That would be good, knowing something about the challenges that I would face, that was my sole purpose of coming here, not to dwell on dreams that may not happen for ages, but to tackle the Gyms and fight my way to the silver conference.

Brock always had a way to get my mid back on track, he was always a big help. I just wondered how it would be when he would no longer be around to help me.

Now I had to keep my mind focused.

I headed to the room Camilla and Jasmine where in, it seemed they were already asleep.

As soon as my head hit the pillow I was gone.

**I've taken back the A/N for this chapter, it helps when the protagonists are asleep. How was this chapter, I know it was kind of a filler, but it is necessary, I had to introduce Silver, this is sort of where you meet him in the games, but after Mr. Pokemon. Jasmine will be travelling with the group in this region. In the next chapter someone will catch their next Pokemon, and and old face will resurface. Who will catch what Pokemon, and who will reappear?**

**Chapter Five: Cherrygrove Turmoil**


	5. Cherrygrove Turmoil

**Jordan:Did you notice?**

**Camilla:What?**

**Jordan: The authour took our A/N away**

**Camilla: Let's get him**

**Storm: Oops, help!**

**Jordan: Here to disclaim**

**Camilla: We'll be back when we've caught the author**

5\. Cherrygrove Turmoil

_I looked around, feeling an extreme case of deja vu overlooking me. It was like I had done this before, put I couldnt place where._

_After all this time they had returned, just like he had promised, just like I had been told in the Orange islands, I didn't think he was serious, but from then to seeing their leader in Tohjo falls and now seeing them here it confirmed that I had not seen the last of them, this would one of the first of many encounters and I could do nothing to stop myself from running intothem more often._

_I thought after all this time without them they would have done what their boss said they would do, but they were so intent on him coming back and the last time I saw him I was sure he was making a comeback, once again._

_That evil voice that echoed throughout the cave, I couldn't get it out of my head. I also wanted to help Camilla, she was now the person I wanted to help, her childhood had been destroyed by team Rocket, yet she hadn't lost hr cool until we met their boss in Tohjo falls._

_I turned the corner and there he was in the same uniform I was used to seeing him in, the most laid back member, like if he didn't work for this organization we could be friends. I was so mad at him now, whay was he doing this, what was the purpose?_

_'We meet again, Jordan Hale.'_

_'Proton.' I said through gritted teeth._

I woke up, mumbles were heard from outside the room.

My friends were slowly waking up. It was still dark outside, what was with all the murmuring.

I creaked the door open and saw that the hallway was packed.

Why were there so many people out there?

I closed the door again.

'What is it?' Camilla asked.

'The hallway is chocablocked.' I replied.

'Why are they all in the hallways, is something stopping them from filing into the lobby?' Jasmine asked.

'Theres only one way to find out.' I said as I started to get dressed. As soon as I was dressed I saw that my friends had followed my example.

Within three minutes we were ready to push our way through the crowd.

Camilla held onto my sleeve with Jasmine holding onto hers and Brock took a hold of Jasmines.

We made our way through the hallway barging past many many people.

When we got to the lobby which took a couple of minutes, I saw why the people didn't file out into the lobby.

The lobby was packed. I couldnt see the floor.

Was the whole of Cherrygrove in the Pokemon centre.

What was everyone doing here in the first place.

'Does this answer your question, Jasmine.' I asked loudly over the chatter that filled my ears. I didn't know if she replied as the idle chatter drowned everyting else out.

'Why is everyone in the Pokemon centre?' I heard Camilla ask behind me.

I had no idea, so I stayed silent, not that she'd be able to hear me.

I led my friends to the front of the Pokemon centre. I wouldn't be able to survive in here for much longer.

Eventually after a few agonizingly long minutes we managed to exit the Pokemon centre.

I relished in the cool breeze as the wind brushed my face, it was nice to get some air, I felt like I was close to suffocating in the Pokemon centre.

Was there something big going on today? Why was everyone in the Pokemon centre?

My friends and I slowly walked around the cit and found the streets were bare, the atmosphere seemed eeirely quiet. Like it was the quiet before the storm.

If that was the case, I was curious as to see what the bad thing that could happen to this now, quiet city.

We wandered the streets in search of anythingat may be out of the orinary, but since we had never been here before, it could have been anything, the only thing out of the ordinary was the amount of people in the Pokemon centre.

We eventually made it to the beach and looked out, the sun had started to rise along the horizon. It was a beautiful sight, we stood there for a few minutes taking in a sight that we may never see again, in witness of a sunrise.

Not long into the beautiful experience something ruined it. I saw a black dot emerge in front of the sun. I thought it was my eyes tricking me at first, that was until more dots surrounded around it, slolwy the dots started to get bigger.

Were they bird Pokemon flying this way?

'Are you guys crazy?' A middle aged man asked us.

He was wearing a red non sleeved jumper, he had a long sleeved white and light blue chequered shirt, his trousers were a light brown. His hair was thinning on top of hos head, his back and sides were white and grey and sa little scruffy.

'Come in quickly!' He shouted in urgency.

It sounded serious, neither my friends or I decided to protest.

Maybe this man had some answers to the questions we had.

'We reached his house. It was white and wooden, he had a single cherry tree outside his house, it was surrounded by flowers and enclosed in a white picket fence. His roof was red and the house only had the ground floor.

As soon as we were inside he closed the door and locked it. It seemed like he had too many locks. I realized the door was a dark red, it was so close to being brown.

'What are you doing outside, on today of all days?' The man asked, looking at us like were insane. 'Don't you know what day it is today?' He asked us.

He didn't have a clue the amount of questions we had for him, but Brock was the voice of reason I would have just asked him as many questions.

'We're travellers.' Brock replied.

'We've never been here before.' Jasmine added.

She hadn't been with us for that long, but she was still referring to us as we, like she had accepted that travelling with us would be a long time thing.

I would love for another person to travel with us. I wondered how long she would be with us until she ran away thinking we were crazy with all the decisions we made.

'You don't know what happens today?' The man asked reserving all of his other questions, now maybe I could think straight with just one question to answer.

'We have no idea, but it cant be good, the amount of people in the Pokemon centre was what gave us our first clue.' I replied.

'They should have expanded that years ago.' The man mumbled to himself.

'Jerry, who's there?' A female voice asked from somewhere further in the house.

This man was called Jerry?

A woman who I didn't recognise straight away came out form another room. She had teal hair which at first startled me, she looked like she had just got up.

'S-s-s...' I claped Brock on the back he was starting to stutter.

'Suzy?' He asked his cheeks flashing a deep shade of pink.

Suzy? The Pokemon breeder.

'Brock, Camilla, Jordan.' Suzy replied greeting us. 'Where is Rachel?' She asked. She thought we'd be travelling together.

'She became a Chatelaine.' Camilla replied.

'Wow, that's incredible for her, where did you place Camilla?' Suzy asked.

'As runner up.' She replied.

Suzy took Camilla to the couch, Jasmine followed a little nervous.

Camilla had promised to help Jasmine, so we knew Jasmine was more comfortable with Camilla than she was with us.

'Jerry?' I asked.

'You can call me Mr. Guide, its what everyone else calls me.

'Mr, Guide?' Brock asked.

'Yes, well, normally when new trainers arrive in this city I am the first person they see, I offer them a tour of the city.' He replied.

That made sense when people called him Mr. Guide.

I had questions that related to what was happening today and why today wasn't normal.

He looked at my expression.

'I guess you both have a lot of questions.' He guessed

'Why are there so many people in the Pokemon centre.' Brock asked.

'Why are the streets bare of people.' I asked at the same time that Brocked his question.

'The same answer; Heracross.' Mr. Guide said.

'Heracross?' I asked. It sounded like a Pokemon of some sort.

'You know why this city is called Cherry grove?' Mr. Guide asked rhetorically.

It wasn't a hard guess, there were so many cherry groves dotted all around the city, we spotted them when we entered yesterday and not long ago when we were wnadering the streets to find any form of life outside of the Pokemon centre.

'Thirty years ago, we had hundreds and hundreds of cherry groves around the city. We were a town back then, but so may people liked the idea of living in a nature based town they moved here. The amount of houses built over the years caused us to become a city, and we planted more and more cherry trees which gave us more groves, and more cherrys and in turn, more trees. But around the same time a Pokemon called Heracross came to our city one day and killed most of our cherry trees suckng the sap running them dry, we tried to run them off, but once they are fixated on a tree sucking up the sap it is hard to get them off. Every year we have to plant more and more trees to keep our supply of trees up to how it normally is.' The guide explained.

My question of what was coming here was answered when the guide said Heracross.

These Heracross were the reason these trees were destroyed?

'They have come back every year on the same day for the past thirty years, no-one has been able to stop them, everyone here has given up, we have just accepted that this is how it will be forever now.' The guide continued.

That was not good, I couldn't have the people of Cherrygrove living in fear. If I had known sooner I would have come to help. Although I hadn't been a Pokemon trainer for that long.

Brock looked at me and knew immediately that there was no way he was going to get me out of doing this.

'What are Heracross?' I asked.

'They are a bug Pokemon, they look like a large blue beetle, they are quite strong too.' Mr. Guide replied. 'You arent thinking of going back out there, are you?' He asked as if it was the craziest idea I've ever had.

I was glad he hadnt travelled with me.

'Going out there is one of the least craziest ideas he's had.' Camilla said returning with Suzy and Jasmine.

'Brock, can I borrow you a second?' Suzy asked.

Brock followe d Suzy blushing a deep shaed of pink once again.

I looked at Camilla for any indication on what Suzy and Brock were doing. She was too busy having a staring conest with Mr. Guide.

'No matter what I say it won't change your mind, will it?' He asked looking between Camilla, Jasmine and I.

At least he caught on quick.

'I'm sorry we couldnt have helped sooner.' I apologised.

I was angry at the Heracross for trying to destroy this lovely city, we would need to think this through before charging out, it was not something I could just run out with and wing it.

These were wild Pokemon and they were co-ordinted and prime with the destruction of the city's produce. I guessed this place was popular in Johto for its cherry's, or at least it was once.

I knew what we had to do, we had to find the leader, isolate them and take them down, I'm sure that would cause the other Heracross to stop their assault on the trees.

'I have a plan.' I said as Brock and Suzy returned.

Camilla and Brock looked at me with a shocked expression. I know, it wasn't like me to have a plan, but this needed to be thought out, or else we would fail, just like everyone else had.

'What did you have in mind?' Jasmine asked, she wsnt fazed, but she didn't know me enough to think this was strange of me.

If you guys can keep the Heracross busy and out f my way until I find the leader then I can isolate them and get them to stop the assault on the cherry trees.

'And how are you going to do that?' Mr. Guide asked. 'Negotiating won't do it and every Pokemon we've had battle against it lost.' He told me.

'I didn't think it was much about strength, it was more of how connected you were with your Pokemon nd the battling style you had.

'Well, there's always something to try.' I replied.

'Use, your Vulpix, Brock, it should help loads, they are bug types, Suzy told us.

That was good news for me, I had Cyndaquil, he was also a fire type.

I would have an advantage, this was not good news for Camilla, not ony was Chikorita a grass tpe and had a type disadvantage, but it didnt listen to Camilla either. This was going to be troublesome for Camilla, but if anyone could tame a Chikorita with human intercation and trust issues, it was Camila.

I didn't know how Jasmine would fair, I didn't know which Pokemon she had.

'I don't agree with this.' Mr Guide started. 'But, I guess I can't stop you trainers.' He continued.

He started to unlock the door.

I took Cyndaquils Pokéball off my belt.

I enlarged it it as I stepped out into the early morning, it seemed the Heracross were already here, one was already sucking on Mr, Guides cherry tree.

It had its back to me, so I dint kno what it looed like from the front, but I quickly looked around and saw many blue beetle-like Pokemon flying around or clinging to cherry trees.

I turned my attention back to the Heracross that clung to Mr. Guides cherry tree.

The back of it was a large oval that was spilt into half. I had a long horn that must have protuded from its head. At end it split in half and had two prongs.

I saw it had hind legs that looked strong. They had a small single thorn-like spike on the outer side of their upper leg, the bottom half of their leg was like their foot and had a sincle claw at the end, it looked like the thorn was digging into the tree. It als o had two arms, the arms had triangular based shoulders that were connected to thin stick like arm before it came to a large forearm which had two thorn-like spikes on the ouer side, these were digging to the tree to stop it from falling off th tree, at the end of the forearm were two claws which looked ike they could move individualy.

I took out My pokedex, before I got the chance to battle this Pokemon I wish I could learn more about it.

_'Heracross, the single horn Pokemon. Though its feet end in sharp claws, Heracross doesn't use them as a weapon. Instead, it digs them into the ground to brace itself while it uses its giant horn to scop up an enemy.' _My Pokédex said.

That was quite informative, but it dint mention that it stuck its claws into the bark of a tree, but the Pokedex said that this Pokemon was bug and fighting. It made sense with those large hind legs and forearms, that horn was probably pretty powerful also.

'Okay, guys, you go on ahead, I'm going to take care of this one first.

'Cyndaquil, I choose you.' I said

My friends ran up ahead as Cyndaquil came out.

The Heracross didn't even acknowledge that Cyndaquil was behind it ready to battle, it was like it didn't even know we were here.

Maybe we'd have to get its attention.

'Okay? Cyndaquil, use ember.' Cyndaquil shot a small fireball towards Heracross, it connected, but the Heracross didn't even ackowledge that it was hit with foire, but that must have dealt some damage since it was a bug Pokemon it must have taken some damage. I just hoped these Heracross werent too powerful else this would prove to be a tedious, maybe even a futile task.

I decided to attack again with the same attack. I'm sure we'd eventually get a reaction, we just had to be cautious as this Pokemon may spring us at any time.

'Ember again.' I said.

Cyndaquil spewed another ball of fire toward the Heracross, but like before we gained no reaction.

I wondered it even noticed the attacks that Cyndaquil used agaisnt it, or was it oblivious because of how sweet the sap was to it.

It probably was a delicacy as they only had it once a year.

I bet some of these Heracross had never tasted the sweet sap of a cherry tree before, so this was a fisrt time experience, attacks wouldnt stop them from sucking the tree completeky dry of its sap. I guessed this was a new Heracross. If that was the case, not only was this probably the first time it had tasted sap, but it couldn't have been all that powerful either.

If that was the situation then a third ember may have fainted it and we would have one less Heracross to deal with.

Since I didn't need to worry about this Heracross turning os us so suddenly I took a quick glance at my friends. Brock was battling Heracross with his Vulpix. Jasmine was tackling two, she had a Pokemon I had not seen before, but it was definitley an electric type as it kept shocking both Heracross at once. Camilla didn't seem to have trouble with chikorita it was tackling a heracross at the moment, but maybe it was personal. I didn't know if Camilla had mastered Chikorita and them being the best of friends just yet.

I turned my attention back to the Heracross who was still preoccupied with the sap.

'Cyndaquil, use emebr.' I said.

If it was too powerful I wouldnt be use ember for too long.

Cyndaquil used emebr again, but this time we got a reaction.

The Heracross dropped off the tree to the ground and landed on Mr. Guides lovely flowers, now they were being trampled on, but I had other problems.

The Herscross turned and I could not take notice of it from the front which meant I could have a proper look at it before it attacked me.

The horn protuded from its forehead, on top of its head it had two small thin antennae with small bulbous ends. It eyes were large, oval and yellow with ablack oval pupil. Its mouth was slightly ajar with a cloudy white liquid dripping down its face. Its abdomen ws split into four. The first was the largest and went from the bottom of its face to three quarters of the way down its body, the second was from the three quarter part to the bottom of its abdomen. On each side was the third and fourth section which held host to the joints of its arms and legs.

I had to act quickly before it attacked Cyndaquil.

'Ember.' I said a little too quickly.

Even so, Cyndaquil understood and shot a small ball of fire to the Heracross which fell as soon as it hit.

I only had to use four embers to faint this Heracross, this meant that they could take a few hits before they uccumbed and could no longer fight, maybe I could do this, I just had to reach the leader quick or else tis may take a while.

I ran on ahead and saw my friends were now further away.

Brock was now fighting tow Heracross with his Vulpix, but it made sense, Vulpix was a strong fire type, maybe Vulpix was their top priority at the moment, but Brock looked like he had a handle on them both, Vulpix danced out the way as a Heracross flew toard it with its horn charged.

Jamine looked like she was doing good, but now she was only battling one Heracross, her Pokemon was doing quite good.

The Pokemon was small silver and its body was round. It had two magnets on either side of its body. They both had a red and blue charge on them. I saw a small screw jutting oput of the top. It turned this way a few times, I realised that is eye was white, but there was a small black ppil in the middle and there were two small screw at the front of its body on either side just below the eye.

I took out my Pokédex to quickly scan this Pokemon.

_'Magnemite, the magnet Pokemon. A sudden power failure can sometimes be traced to many Magnemite draining energy from the power lines that feed a building.' _My Pokédex informed me.

I saw Camilla was struggling with Chikorita, she was calling out attacks, but Chikorita was just ramming into Heracross as if it was personal what they had done to it. I guess it would be a while until they got along, but I hoped it wasn't that long, I would not like to experience what Camilla was experiencing, but I wouldn't be able to handle a Pokemon like she was.

I continued to run, as soon as I turned a corner I could see the leader Heracross, I guessed he was the leader because he looked like he was issuing commands and talking to Heracross that landed next to him. That was the Heracross I had to go for. I ran in his direction, he didn't notice me, but he didn't have to worry because another Hercaross landed in front of me and Cyndaquil.

No we had to get rid of this Heracross before we could get to the leader.

This heracross had a diffret shaped horn, at the end it had two lumps intead of prongs, it was more like the top half of a loveheart, maybe it was agender difference like the Pikachu Camilla and I had.

But I didn't have time to think about it, this Heracross lowered it horn and started to run toward my Cyndaquil.

'Cyndaquil, dodge and use tackle.' I said.

Heracross ran head on and Cyndaqul narrowly dodged and immedaity jumped at Heracross which knocked it of balnace and it fell onto its front and slid a few feet away, this was y advantage.

'Ember.' I said.

Before Heracross could recover Cyndaquil used emebr on it and it had no gained more damage. I though if I kept this up it wouldnt be too long until I was battling the leader of this swarm. He was the one I had to talk to to get this to stop. I wondered if anyone had got as far as I had yet.

I'm sure Brock would have been able to handle the leader, I was also sure that Jasmine would have been comfortable with that too, but with how Chikorita was behaving it would have proved a bit more difficult for Camilla.

But I guessed I was going to find out myself how I would fare against it.

The Heracross got up and looked at Cyndaquil with daggers in its eyes, obvioulsy this was now made personal, I didn't know how or why.

Maybe it was a proud Heracross and had been regarded as a warrior for years, and for a small Pokemon like Cyndaquil to bump it down to its level it felt disgraced and its leader would think of it weak against such a small Pokemon. It couldnt have its leader thinking it wasn't strong, that was okay with me because I would show the whole swarm that the leader was also weak.

With every victory my Cyndaquil gained it would get stringer, so if the leader was stronger than the rest, it wouldn't be too much of a challenge for Cyndaquil when we reached him.

This Heracross once agin lowered its horm, but I didn't want a repeat and this Heracross had probably learnt from last time, but obviously not well enough.

'Ember.' I said.

Before Heracross reached Cyndaquil Cyndaquil used ember, it slowed the Heracross down, but didn't stop him.

'Jump.' I said quick or else Heracross would have rammed into Cyndaquil, I had to have Cyndaquil in near perfect condition to face agianst its leader.

Cyndaquil jumped just before Heracross reached it.

Heracross kept going and crashed into the ground a few feet behind where Cyndaquil was a few seconds before.

'Cyndaquil, finish it with ember.' I said.

Cyndaquil got behind the Heracross and hit it with a small fireball of ember.

The Heracross didn't move from where it was.

I now hoped I had a clear shot towards the leader.

A few feet away from the kleader two Heracross blocked my path.

Oh, this was not good, how was I supposed to take on two? Even if I did manage to beat both, my Cyndaquil would have been in pretty bad shape afterwards, there would be no way he could battle the leader without losing and unfortunately I would have no more Pokemon to battle him with.

'Hey, Jordan.' Brock greeted me, coming on my right with his Vulpix.

'Need a hand?' Jasmine asked coming up on my right.

'Go ahead, we've got these two.' Brock continued.

I was so glad my friends had my back. I would never have got past unless these took some of my burden for me.

I ran further past these, but yet agai another Heracross landed blocking me from reaching the leader.

'Jordan!' Camilla called.

I looked behind me and Camilla came up, she had Chikorita's pokeball in her hand. I guess they didn't see eye to eye yet, neither one trusted the other, at lesst not yet they didn't.

'I've got this one.' She continued. 'you go get the leader.' She added.

Even when her Chikorita wasn't the greastest Pokemon to battle with I knew I could trust her to help me out.

I walked the last few feet to face the leader. I was thankful he had no-one else ti face me. I didn't want any more complications.

Cyndaquil stepped forward, but I guestered with my hand for him to wait. He did as I asked.

I would try to reason with the Heracross, if he didn't listen then I would let Cyndaquil interviene

'Look at this destruction you've created.' I started.

He looked at me as if he was proud which made me grit my teeth.

'Do you have any idea where the people of this town have retreated to?' I asked him.

He looked like he didn't care, as long as they were out of his way.

He glared at me, like he was annoyed that I was here to oppose him.

'People may have tried and failed to stop you before, but before I take my own try, I will give ypu the option to call your swarm and fly away, the only condition is you never come back.

He turned his head like he was scoffing, like he was saying "as if I would listen to a human like you".

This whole city deserves to bee free of fear, to be free of hard work every year, they should have many cherry trees flourishing, not with pests like you destroying their crops. They've worked so hard on producing the trees. The cherry trees aren't here for you to come and destroy. If you don't stop I'll have no choice but to stop you.' I said.

He glared at me as if to say " I'd like to see you try".

Even though this Heracross said nothing, he truly was infuraiting.

'Cyndaquil?' I asked.

Her stepped in front of me, happy that he was able to help me.

'Use ember.' I said, I didn't want Heracross to attack first, I didn't know how fast he was, this ember was a test.

Cyndaquil shot an ember towards Heracross. At last second he jumped to the side and dodged the attack, I'd have to be closer to catch this Heracross off guard.

He put his head down and his horn started to glow, he started to run toawrd us.

I would get Cyndaquil to dodge this.

'Dodge Cyndaquil.' I said.

Cyndaquil jumped to the side, but Heracross swung its horn from left to right, Cyndaquil was hit and flew a few feet away.

This Heracross was a lot smarter than the other members of its swarm.

I would need another strategy against this Heracross if I was going to beat it.

Cyndaquil got up a few seconds later. I was glad he was still good to fight.

So, these Heracross can't have been that powerful, especially if my Cyndaquil was still good to battle.

I didn't issue aniother attack just yet, I was waiting for Heracross to attack again.

Heracross didn't waste any time, he lowered his horn, powered it up and ran head on toward Cyndaquil again, but Cyndaquil and I weren't going to do what we did last time.

I waited until Heracross was almost on top of Cyndaquil before I decided what to do.

'Cyndaquil, jump.' I said.

Cyndaquil jumped, but the Heracross was just as smart, as Cyndaquil jumped it lifted its horn up and caught Cyndaquil between its two prongs. This was bad, now Cyndaquil couldnt move, he had immobilized my Pokemon and I didn't know how to counter it. This Heracross was very good at battling, its tactics were to outsmart its opponent and then destroy it, if I couldnt outsmart this Heracross I had to find another way to beat it. Cyndaquil wasn't fast or strong, it seemed I was out of options.

I went back to an earlier thought, Cyndaquil would have to be close.

I looked at Cyndaquo struggling in Heracross horn, It couldnt get much closer than that.

'Cyndaquil, use ember.'

Cyndaquil stopped struggling.

Heracross realized this a bit to late.

Heracross started to throw Cyndaquil up, but Cyndaquil's emebr hit when he was only a few inches out of Heracross horns, so it was so close it was effective, Heracross fell to the ground.

Sure it was smart, but its horn was then umable to do anything, its bhorn seemed like its biggest asset and it couldnt use it, its arms also seemed to short to reach its horn, so I used how close Cyndaquil was as my advantage point.

Cyndaquil landed and I wanted to get this over with before Heracross could get back up.

'Cyndaquil, use ember.' I said.

Cyndaquil went up to Heracross as it got up.

The ember hit, but Heracross toughed it out.

It floated into the air and outstetched its arms.

I saw a few green rays make their way toward Cyndaquil, but they were quick to change their direction, so it was hard to see where or when they would hit.

'Cyndaquil, run around and try to dodge.'

This tactic seemed like a bad idea, because a few seconds later it was hit from all different directions.

This Heracross was outsmarting me. A wild Pokemon had never been able to do that before. I was beginning to get a little worried, I was starting to think that this Heracross was powerful so it could beat me.

If I had to catch this Heracross to stop this infestation then I would, at the moment this seemed like the only way I would be able to end this three decade long infestation.

Maybe that was why no-one had been able to stop this because they didn't try to catch Heracross, they just tried to defeat it. With Heracross captured the Heracross here would be lost, they wouldn't know what to do. Maybe Heracross would dislike me because I had captured it, but I had to stop this swarm from destroying anymore trees.

I was about to issue another attack, but Heracross landed and looked like it had been hit bad. I ten looked to one of its legs, it looked like it had been burnt.

I remembered what Leaf had said about the status conditions when we were in Celadon, burn was one of them, it inflicted a little bit of damage every now and then. Maybe that would give me the advantage I needed.

'Cyndaquil, use ember.'

Unfortunately, for Heracross he was still rcovering from its burn. It was too late when it stood up as the ember had reached it.

It had hit its leg where it was burnt and it collpased onto both its knees in pain, not being able to take the pain much longer.

It floated up, I knew what it was going to do, so I thought quickly.

'Go, pokeball.' I called, throwing a Pokéball in his wake, it would halt his attack, but it may also capture him.

Just before we was about to extend his arms the ball encapsulated him.

The pokeball fell to the ground with heracross inside it.

I knew he would put up a fight, but he was burnt and he was quite weak at the moment.

The pokeball rolled from side to side.

I waited in anticipation for the ding to signal the capture or for Heracross to break free.

Cyndaquil was ready to attack as soon as he escaped, so I would be ready to throw another Pokéball. I would not let the Heracross cause desruction to this city anymore.

The ding signalled to show that the capyure was a success.

I heard silence fall. I didn't realize the buzzing sound from before from all the Heracross who were flying and suckling on the sap.

I turned around and found out every Heracross that I could see was looking at me.

My friends had stopped their battles, they had realized I had captured Heracross.

I didn't speak for a while, no-one did anything.

I saw Mr. Guide and Suzy exit his house, they looked at me in amazement.

Slowly people filed out of the Pokemon centre, most of the stopped and they all looked at me, some kept walking and looked at the Heracross.

I let out Heracross.

He looked injured, but immediately looked at me.

'Hey, Heracross.' I said getting down to his level. 'You and I are gonna be great friends, we'll also get stronger together, but can you please ask your swarm to stop coming here and destroying these trees, not only are you destroying the trees, but you are destroying these peoples lives.' I told it.

Ther Heracross looked apologetic at me and then the Pokemon who had exited the Pokemon centre.

He called a few orders before most of the Heracross started to fly. They hovered in the air waiting for the next commend.

Heracross walked past me and past my friends to a fallen friend. He walked to the Heracross who I had beaten before Brock and Jasmine came to assist me.

He made a guesture of knighting that Heracross, before coversing with it a bit.

The Heracross flew up and shouted a few words before it started to fly off toward the diresction of the beach.

All the other Heracross followed a few seconds later.

My heracross came back.

'Thank you Heracross, lets go get you healed.' I said returning him to his Pokéball. 'Cyndaquil return.' I called.

I had to rest him also, he had been a massive help.

My friends and I made our way to the Pokemon centre.

I gave my Pokemon to nurse Joy before I was bombarded by people with their own assault of questions about me my friends and how I had managed to help.

A lot of them just tanked me before reurning to their houses.

My friends and I each had a table of fans and people with questions.

I couldnt see them until about twenty minutes after I had given nurse Joy my Pokemon. I'm sure my Pokemon were healed, but i'd have trouble trying to recueve then without being swarmed by the crowd I had attracted.

I had never been this popular in Kanto, I don't remember this many people crowding around me. I was gladni want the only one in the spotlight, now my friends knew how it was to be me when I did something extraordinary, but I was only doing what I thought was right by helping these people who needed it.

After another twenty minutes the questions had stopped. The Pokemon centre was almost empty and my friends and I were sitting at one table. I had also got my Pokemon from nurse Joy.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I'm glad that was over, I couldn't keep doing that. I just wish life would slow down once in a while.

Suzy came in a few seconds after I had started to relax.

'Um...guys?' She started gaining our attention.

'Before you leave Jer...Mr. Guide has something for you.' She told us.

It was probably something to say thank you.

I would love to receive whatever it was but I wanted to stay here and realx for a while.

'Thank you, Suzy.' Camilla started.

'I think we'll come over later though.' Jasmine told her.

I sent a silent thank you to Jasmine, she had really made herself a part of our group now.

**Jordan: Well, I guess I have a new Pokemon.**

**Camilla: And you consider Jasmine a vital part of our group now.**

**Jordan: To be honest, I didn't know if she'd stay.**

**Camilla: But we did promise to help her.**

**Jordan: Yeah, anyway, see you next time.**

**Chapter six: Mr. Pokemon**


	6. Mr Pokémon

**Jordan: Once again, we are back.**

**Camilla: It's a disclaimer.**

**Jordan: All right go to somewhere else.**

**Camilla: Jordan...it's someone else, not somewhere.**

6\. Mr. Pokémon

The atmosphere was now calm, and we could relax for a little while.

'I guess you guys don't get to relax much?' Jasmine asked.

'We normally get a few hours, but we haven't had many days of relaxation, and the most we have without any sort of event is about a day, sometimes a few hours less.' Camilla replied.

'It's nice to not worry about anything once in a while.' I added.

'So how many days have you been with events consecutively? Jasmine asked.

'Three, but this would take the total up to four.' Brock replied.

Jasmine didn't say anything after that, she must have been contemplating, she also wanted our help with something, but I had a feeling she didn't want to tell us what the problem was just yet.

'How about that dream searching, Camilla?' I asked her after a few seconds of silence passed.

'Still nothing yet.' Camilla replied. 'I was hoping to look in the brochures, but it was packed in here earlier and now I've just had a hectic morning, I can always look in the next Pokémon centre.' She replied.

There was no rush in finding a new dream, of course I had my dream before I went to Professor Oaks summer camp all those years ago. Camilla had her dream and at the last hurdle she lost it to her best friend, it was hard to find a new dream after losing the one you had hoped to win, then coming in second place.

I had no idea what my dream would be if it was like Camilla's or if I had become a Pokémon master by beating lance in the Pokémon league, but I lost at the second hurdle. Lance thought I would have battled him, he told me himself and he thought if anyone could beat him it was me, Lance was still the champion and it didn't look like it was going to change, but this year I was going to battle in the silver conference, it seemed like Lance was the champion of that too.

It was nice that we had a few minutes to relax, but we'd have to see Mr, Guide sometime today. I would have loved to reach Mr. Pokémon's house before it got dark tonight.

It might take us the whole afternoon, so the sooner we got to Mr. Pokémon's house the better.

I got up.

'Where you off to, Jordan?' Brock asked.

'I think we should go now.' I replied. 'I'd like to reach Mr. Pokémon's house before it gets dark, I don't know how long it will take for us to get there.' I continued.

'Good idea, I'd like to get there before it gets dark, I don't really fancy camping out, he may offer us a place to stay for the night.' Jasmine said standing up agreeing with me.

Neither Brock nor Camilla protested, we all made our way out of the Pokémon centre toward Mr. Guides house.

I walked in and saw he was sitting on an armchair. Suzy was sitting on a two-seater sofa that was next to it.

My friends and I squeezed ourselves on the three-seater sofa that was opposite them both.

Before any of us could say anything Mr. Guide took out a piece of blue plastic out of his pocket.

'This is a card I was given by the radio tower in Goldenrod City.' He said as if it was that simple.

'What is it?' Camilla asked.

'I don't know, I was given them because I helped new trainers by giving them a tour of the town and information when they got here.' Mr. Guide said. 'At least that's what they told me.' He continued.

He took out three more from his pocket.

He gave each of us.

It was a thin piece of transparent blue plastic. It looked like it was holographic. I had no idea what it was for, and Mr. Guide had no idea what it was, so I guess he didn't know either.

'Maybe when you reach Goldenrod you could ask about it, see what it's for. I'm sure you trainers would get more use out of them than me. I don't leave this city.' Mr Guide said.

'Thank you.' I said placing the plastic in my bag, I didn't think it would get so damaged in there, if at all.

'The whole city appreciates what you've done for us.' Mr Guide said.

I knew that, the amount of thank you's I received after we had saved the city from the Heracross, after I had captured it. That seemed like it was the only way we would have stopped this day from happening every year. I understood that the sap was sweet because these cherry groves were sweet, but sucking the sap destroyed the trees and this place would not really be cherry groves anymore, the groves of cherries was why the city's name was Cherrygrove.

This prophecy thing that Moltres talked to us about became clearer and clearer, I did a lot of things and maybe that was what was building me up to it, maybe I was purposely thrown into trouble to ready myself for the prophecy that I was in.

I couldn't think about that now, it was not the time to dwell on what will be when we have a task at hand.

'Thanks for helping us yesterday.' Brock thanked Mr Guide.

'I hardly did anything; it was you four who saved us.' Mr Guide said.

'Suzy...' Brock started.

'It's okay, Brock. I'm going to stay here a while longer, who knows maybe we'll meet up again in the future.' Suzy told him. 'I wish the rest of you good luck.' Suzy said.

'Thank you once again and goodbye.' Mr guide said.

We each said our own farewell and started on out into the afternoon.

I hoped we would reach Mr. Pokémon's house by nightfall.

We got to the start of the route in silence before Brock piped up.

'It seems Mr. Pokémon's house is at the halfway point in this route.' He told us.

So it may take us a while to navigate this route even after we get to Mr. Pokémon's house? I didn't think that it would be so tricky, but this route seemed long anyway. I couldn't see very far there seemed to be a lot of tree's that prevented me from seeing too far off. I knew we'd be able to find Mr. Pokémon's house and if it was late when we reached there maybe he'd let us stay before sending us back to Cherrygrove. I didn't really fancy spending another night in Cherrygroves Pokémon centre, not with how packed it was when I woke up last time, sure there was a perfectly good reason last time, but still I had no intention of sleeping there again.

We made a few feet of the route with silence after Brock told us how far into the route Mr. Pokémon's house was.

'You know that I've heard that one of the Gym leaders isn't in their Gym at the moment, so the gym is closed down.' Jasmine told us.

'A Gym without its leader?' Brock asked.

'That does sound strange.' Camilla started. 'But to be fair, the first three Gyms we went to the leaders weren't exactly there either.' She continued.

'I did have work.' Brock replied.

'We know you did.' I reminded Brock.

'Wait, you're a Gym leader?' Jasmine asked Brock.

'I'm a former Gym leader, my father has taken over the Gym in my absence.' He replied.

It was strange for Jasmine to bring that up, but it helped me know that there were only seven Gyms open at the moment. I hoped that it wasn't the first city's Gym, not like Viridians, it would take me ages to get there since we were on a task for professor Elm, so we would have to make this trek again to get to the next city.

'So, Camilla, do you have any idea what you're going to pursue now? There are no Chateau's in this region.' Jasmine told her.

'I didn't think there would be, but I'm not sure, I quite like travelling with no dream, I did it for almost a whole year. I was searching, but I didn't come across any that piqued my interest for me to pursue it.' Camilla replied.

'Well, every year there are more and more professions that Pokémon trainers can become, it's just a matter of finding one you like.' Brock interjected.

'I can't imagine what it's like, Camilla, but I sort of understand, if I couldn't chase my dream of becoming a Pokémon master I would find it hard to have another dream too.' I added.

'I'm sure Mr. Pokémon might have some ideas.' Jasmine said.

It was nice to be travelling with Jasmine, we hardly knew her, but she was proving to be a real asset, she had helped with the Heracross incident and now she was willing to help Camilla find a dream.

That was a good idea, he probably knows about most Pokémon professions, he knows a lot about Pokémon, maybe he knows a few Pokémon trainer professions that Camilla could work towards.

'He does know a lot about Pokémon, hence his name.' Brock agreed.

I knew Camilla had been struggling with a dream ever since she became the runner up in the battle Chateau. She enjoyed travelling with us in the orange islands, I knew that wasn't the only reason, but she had told me the real reason and it was best that it stayed between her and I. She hadn't told Brock the whole story, at least not as much depth as she had with me.

I didn't know if Camilla wanted to chase a dream yet, she still had to figure out her Chikorita, it did not like her and that was clear from anyone's point of view, we just didn't know why. I knew she would have trouble catching Pokémon and travelling on this journey if Chikorita didn't co-operate with her.

I knew if anyone could get Chikorita under control, it would be Camilla. I would not have had the patience with a Pokémon like that. I hoped I never had to deal with it.

'Maybe.' Camilla agreed.

I didn't know what Camilla was thinking of, but it didn't seem like it was professions.

We came to a fork in the road.

'Any idea which way?' I asked no-one in particular. No-one answered, which gave me the answer.

I decided to take the right route, it seemed denser that the other route, I don't think Mr. Pokémon would like to hide his house in plain sight.

As we got further in it became more and more dense, the trees started to thicken, I hoped I hadn't taken the wrong route, that wouldn't have been good, if it didn't lead anywhere then why was there a fork in the road?

I wasn't looking forward to going back, but we didn't really have a choice, no-one would go back in our place.

We ventured further through the dense foliage of trees, if they got any denser they'd be no general path to follow, we'd probably get lost.

We passed through the trees for bit longer in silence, none of us had anything to say, it's not normally like this, I knew we would have loads to talk about the further we ventured through Johto. Maybe we'd even have a few things to tell Professor Elm when we returned to New Bark, I'm sure Gold would like to know about it too.

I saw an opening up ahead and this would be where Mr Pokémon lived, or would it be just a clear opening with nothing distinguishable about it?

Once I reached the opening I saw a log cabin.

I didn't expect Mr Pokémon to live in a log cabin.

The walls looked like logs stacked on top of each other, they were going horizontally, the door was wooden and green with a white wooden doorframe, the door had a brass doorknob on the front. The roof was green slate, it had ivy growing on one side and down one side of the house. It was wonder this house was still standing, even if the ivy didn't topple it over it seemed like it was easy enough to catch fire, but Mr Pokémon must have seemed to mind. He must have lived here for a while, isolated from the rest of the region, I guess there were only a few people who knew of his location, or maybe he liked living away from towns and cities and he liked the wildlife, the environment.

I reached the door with my friends hot on my heels. I knocked on the door, it opened almost immediately.

The person who opened the door was not someone who I expected to see here.

He looked exactly as he did when I last saw him, but how did he get here so quickly his lab was quite far away from here.

'Jordan, Brock, Camilla.' Professor Oak greeted us.

'Professor Oak?' I asked.

'You have acquired a new friend.' Professor Oak stated looking behind us at Jasmine.

'Professor Oak?' She asked as the professor let us in.

'Yes.' He replied.

'The professor Oak?' She asked.

Was she surprised to meet professor Oak? How would she handle meeting professor Elm?

'Is there another?' He asked holding out his hand.

Jasmine seemed too shocked to shake his hand, so professor Oak coughed to get her attention.

'Is something wrong, Samuel?' A low voice called from somewhere else in the room.

'Why don't you sit down?' Professor Oak whispered gesturing toward the couch, it was the same colour as the door and roof. 'No, Wesley, just your guests are here.'

I looked around the house and saw that the inside looked exactly as the outside did. The logs were all horizontal.

To the back of the room, on the opposite side to the door was a grey brick open fireplace, there were a few logs of wood inside, the fire was not lit. Around the fireplace was a black iron grilled fireguard. The oval glass table was situated in between the two three-seater couches, it was on a grey oval rug, but the rug was slightly larger than the tabletop.

There was a doorway made of dark wood, the wood looked worn and like you could snap it if it wasn't so thick. I didn't know the doorway led to, but there was a man standing in the doorway.

He had a dark green fabric jacket with a red handkerchief in the handkerchief pocket. Underneath was a light grey shirt. He had brown trousers and his shoes were black, but they were worn and slightly dirty. He had white hair around his head, on top he wore a hat that matched the colour and fabric of his jacket.

He was holding a glass cylinder case, the bottom was light brown, it had a cream folded blanket resting on the bottom. The top was the same colour as the base. Inside was an egg. I knew it was a Pokémon egg as I had held one before, it looked roughly the same size, the colour was different from Rachel's Eevee egg and my Dratini egg. This egg was white with red and blue triangles randomly around it with white triangles inside them.

This was the "egg" that professor Elm asked us to collect for him, why was this egg so fascinating, sure we had no idea what was in this egg, maybe professor Elm did, maybe he knew a lot about Pokémon eggs.

'Wow.' I heard Camilla say.

She never had an egg; she only had a baby Pokémon.

I wonder what would happen if she had an egg, how would she fare as a mother figure to a baby that had hatched, she wouldn't be a surrogate mother, she would be a proper mother. Just like Rachel and I had been, but she would have the egg long enough to hatch it, she would be giving it to professor Elm before too long.

'that's a Pokémon egg?' Jasmine asked.

She seemed surprised.

'You haven't seen a Pokémon egg before?' I asked.

'Not like this, not in person.' She replied. She was still in awe.

I was surprised that she hadn't had any experience with eggs, every one of my friends either had an up-close experience with an egg, whether it be theirs or someone else's.

Mr Pokémon placed the case on the table gently.

He sat down next to professor Oak and seemed to press a button.

The glass of the case fell away, I saw there were three rods that kept the top from falling down.

Mr Pokémon took the Pokémon egg off of the blanket.

'Would you like to hold it?' Mr Pokémon asked Jasmine.

'You'd let me hold it?' She asked.

Mr Pokémon held out the egg to Jasmines outstretched arms.

Jasmine took the egg, cautiously. I know she didn't want the break the egg, but she had to hold it firmly enough so she wouldn't drop it.

She began to cradle it in her arms.

She looked a little uncomfortable at cradling an egg.

Camilla touched the egg.

'It's warm.' She commented.

'Yes, this incubator is what helps keep the egg warm.' Mr Pokémon said. 'A bag is suitable, but this incubator keeps the egg at a high temperature so the egg hatches quicker than if you carried it in your bag, the only thing that would beat this incubator, would be an incubated bag' Mr Pokémon said.

I had never seen anyone carry an egg in an incubator before, maybe it was new, or maybe they didn't have them in my home region.

'Can I hold it?' Camilla asked Jasmine.

Jasmine gave the egg to Camilla.

'Hello little one.' Camilla said to the egg.

In the small Pokémon village in Kanto, just before Vermillion city, we learned that talking to a Pokémon egg will get the Pokémon to know you better. Once it hatches it will be easier for it to imprint on you. Dratini imprinted on me almost immediately after it hatched, it felt weird to be a parent to a Pokémon, but I got used to it. I was so proud when it evolved and once again when it evolved into Dragonite, she was an amazing Pokémon.

'Don't get too attached Camilla.' Brock said. 'We have to deliver it to professor Elm, remember?' Brock asked.

Camilla nodded, she looked sad, maybe she wanted to hatch an egg like I had.

Brock was right though, we had to deliver this egg to professor elm, he'd know more about it and he might be able to study it better.

'Do you two want to hold the egg?' Mr Pokémon asked Brock and myself.

'No Thank you.' I politely declined.

'I'm okay.' Brock replied.

Camilla handed the egg back to Mr Pokémon, he placed it back in the incubator and pressed a button which made the glass come back up and surround the egg.

'I guess you'll be taking that back to professor Elm?' Mr Pokémon asked.

He knew we were the ones that were sent by Professor Elm, so it seemed like a silly question.

'You can stay her for the night before you head back if you like.' Mr Pokémon offered.

I looked out the window and realised the time had got away from us, it was beginning to get back. If we headed back to Cherrygrove now, it would be really late into the night before we made it to the Pokémon centre for our room.

'Actually about that.' Professor Oak started. 'I will take the Pokémon egg to Robert, Wesley.' He continued. 'I think these trainers would prefer to continue on with their journey more that returning to places they've already been.' He finished.

Professor Oak was offering to take the egg back in our place?

That was nice of him.

'Nevertheless, you still have a place to stay tonight.' Mr Pokémon said.

I was grateful that he was giving us place to stay tonight.

I wondered what the next place was and if it was where my first Gym battle was at. I was eager to get back to proper Gym battles, the last one I had was with Blaine, that was my last battle that didn't challenge me in other ways or bring me close to death. I still received badges, but I kind of forget what a proper Gym battle was like. I almost didn't realize that Camilla and Mr Pokémon had gone into another room with Jasmine in tow.

She was probably going to ask him about other classes of trainers or other Pokémon specialities there were.

When they were gone something hit me, Professor Oak was here.

'Professor Oak?' I asked. 'How did you get here so quickly?' I asked.

'I expected you to ask me earlier, Jordan.' He replied. 'I caught the train from Saffron to Goldenrod.' He replied.

There it was again, Goldenrod, it sounded like the Saffron of Johto, maybe it was even better than Saffron, maybe even bigger. I didn't know that a city would be as big as Saffron was, so if Goldenrod was bigger I would be astounded.

I didn't realize there was train that came from one region to another. I never realized that there was train station in Saffron, it was big, we probably didn't explore all of it.

'You never knew I had a radio show in Goldenrod, did you?' Professor Oak asked me rhetorically.

I was clearly amazed; I didn't know what to say. Brock seemed pretty impressed too.

'You never asked me what I did outside my lab.' Professor Oak told me.

I never assumed he left Pallet town. I didn't know he travelled all the way to Saffron to catch a train to Johto to do a radio show.

'Of course I couldn't do it when Saffron was closed for a blackout, but as soon as it was up and running again I came back to do my show. Maybe you could come and see me do one sometime.' Professor Oak suggested.

I didn't know what to say, but I would definitely want to see Professor Oak do his radio show.

'Wait a minute.' I said, another thought coming to mind. 'Who's in charge of the lab at the moment?' I asked.

'Tracey is looking after the lab with my granddaughter, Daisy.' Professor Oak said.

I completely forgot that Liam had an older sister, she was out travelling for the past two or three years, she had returned from her travels, maybe I would get to see her when I returned to Pallet town after I competed in the Silver conference.

This time when I battled in the Pokémon league I would aim for better than last time, last time I had lost my second battle against the Pokémon leagues finest trainers. This time I was determined to do better, this time I was going to prove to Lance that I could reach him.

Lance believed that if that mishap didn't happen I would have reached him, so this time I would make sure that every Pokémon I had would be completely under control no matter what happened. I would show everyone that whatever happened last year was a small mistake and that I was strong enough to go all the way.

'So, would you like to know how you're Pokémon are?' Professor Oak asked.

How had I not thought about that? It's like I forgot about them, forgot about Pikachu, forgot about my best friend. I felt instantly guilty, but we had had a few hectic days, and I had only said goodbye about two days ago now.

I didn't voice my thoughts; it would make me feel worse.

'I dread to know how they feel.' I replied.

'Why's that?' Brock asked me.

'They'd probably hate me for leaving them.' I replied.

'On the contrary.' Professor Oak started.

I looked up at him with surprise.

'Your Pokémon trust you completely, they knew you'd have good reason to send them to the lab, even Pikachu understands your reasons. They seem to like being in the fields behind my lab, in the brief time that I saw them.'

'Brief?' I asked.

'I left not long after, else I would not have made it here in time.' Professor Oak said.

I didn't know how long it took Professor Oak to get here.

'How did you get here so quickly from Goldenrod, it's not close is it?' I asked.

'I was a Pokémon trainer once upon a time. Wesley sent me a Pidgeot to bring me here.' Professor Oak told us.

I never knew that Professor Oak was a Pokémon trainer when he was younger, I also didn't know that about my mother until she told me.

Grown ups had loads of stuff I never knew about them, I'm sure when I was older children wouldn't know about me being a Pokémon trainer. I'm not sure everyone in the world knew about Lance, I didn't know if there were any other regions with their own Pokémon leagues and their own champions.

'Thank you for all your help.' I heard Camilla say.

She, Jasmine and Mr Pokémon were standing in the doorway.

'You're welcome, Camilla.' Mr Pokémon replied. 'I'm sure other people can give you better explanations in other cities, especially the historical ones.' Mr Pokémon continued.

I guess Jasmine had helped Camilla talk to Mr Pokémon about dreams.

Camilla and Jasmine came back to sit with us.

'Did you get what you came for?' Brock asked.

'It definitely helped.' Camilla replied.

Maybe she would find a new dream to pursue now.

'Oh, I mustn't forget, I know you like to travel, there is a cave just north of here that hosts Pokémon that appear no where else in Johto, and they are more frequent at night. You may want to explore that instead of staying here tonight.' Professor Oak told us four.

A rare Pokémon that only appears in this cave.

I didn't think we'd ever get this chance again, in the daytime we may never find this Pokémon, it may give me an advantage on Leaf's progression on her Pokédex.

I looked to each of my friends, they all had the same idea.

'It may be a good idea to check it out.' Camilla said.

'We have tents to sleep outside if it gets too late.' Brock added.

We hadn't slept outside, I think the last time I remember sleeping outside it was in the Pokémon village, just before Vermillion.

'I didn't know about the Pokémon that reside in the cave at night, and I know almost every Pokémon in Johto.' Jasmine told us.

Jasmine had lived in Johto it made sense that she knew most, if not all Pokémon, but I had lived in Kanto my whole life and I only knew of a few Pokémon that lived in Kanto before I set on my journey, I had read countless Pokémon books, but still had almost no idea of what encounters with Pokémon I would experience. I was glad I went on the journey; it was so much better experiencing than reading about it. Every experience ended and the memories were sweet and nostalgic, but they weren't as good as living it in the moment, so I would take as much time as I could experiencing everything.

We said our goodbyes to Mr Pokémon and Professor Oak as we decided that this may be our only time to explore the cave at night.

As we left we saw a small opening to the right of Mr Pokémon's house, maybe it was a shortcut to the cave. We walked a few metres in silence, Brock was looking at his map to see where this cave was and as much as he could about it.

I saw a set of stairs we had to climb, the ledge that was above us was quite high, and dark cave was obviously in that direction.

We reached the top and I still couldn't see the cave opening.

I didn't want to walk for too long in the dark.

'It says here the cave is called "Dark Cave" and that if you go too far it can become nonnavigational.' Brock said.

That meant no wandering, we'd have to stick together throughout the whole time, that would mean we wouldn't get lost.

I started to wonder about any people who had been in dark cave.

It was apparently nonnavigational, were there people in there unable to make it out as they couldn't see where they were, or where they were going?

I didn't want to know what it was like, there were apparently people who had lost their way in victory road, so I dreaded to imagine what dark cave was like.

I was about to suggest we setup camp, maybe we wouldn't be able to make it to Dark Cave tonight, I didn't want to lose the chance of seeing this Pokémon that was rare, but if it couldn't be helped what could we do.

Maybe we would have to take time out of our travels later and venture through dark cave later in our journey.

I glanced up to see if I could see the moon, but there was a huge structure in the way, it even prevented me from seeing the stars.

'Look.' Jasmine exclaimed pointing in the direction of where the structure was.

I saw a small archway that was pitch black. I realised the large structure was the cave, it looked like a mountain of some sort, like Mt. Moon. I wondered if this cave had different levels like Mt. Moon.

I hoped incidents that happened in Mt. Moon occurred in Dark cave too.

I couldn't have what happened to Brock and Rachel happen to Camilla and Jasmine, but to happen to Brock twice, I would feel like the worst friend ever.

'Dark cave.' Camilla said in awe.

**Jordan: So we've made it to dark cave.**

**Camilla: And next chapter will introduce a new addition.**

**Jordan: But it won't be what you expect, or for who.**

**Camilla: Until we see you next.**

**Chapter Seven: A sparse cave**


	7. A Sparse Cave

**Jordan: Back once more.**

**Camilla: Here to give a disclaimer.**

**Jordan: Don't want this author sued.**

**Camilla: Then there'd be no us.**

7\. A sparse cave

None of us moved for a few moments we all took it in, it was definitely large, no-where near as big as victory road or Mt Moon, but it was still impressively large.

I saw a sign next to the entrance.

I walked up to it.

"Dark cave! Enter at your own risk!" is what it read.

'That's comforting.' Jasmine said. She was reading over my shoulder.

'It seems as if it's only one level.' Brock said still rooted in the place where we stopped earlier.

I found that hard to believe, if people got lost in here I don't think it would be only one level, victory road was more than one level, that didn't seem so hard to navigate, Mt Moon had multiple levels and that wasn't hard to navigate through. I didn't understand how this was hard to navigate.

I peered inside and could hardly see anything.

It had definitely earned its name of "Dark cave".

In both mountainous caves I had entered before there were lights inside, I didn't understand why there were no lights in here. How were people supposed to navigate their way through the cave without any light source?

'Should we explore a little?' I asked.

'We're here for experience, why not?' Camilla asked rhetorically. She walked past Jasmine and I and straight into the cave.

I followed her example making sure Brock and Jasmine weren't far behind.

Inside I looked up and found that I couldn't see the ceiling, I couldn't see any signs of elevation anywhere, but that's probably because I couldn't see that far in front of my face.

I could only just make out Camilla's silhouette, but that was because the small light from outside formed her shape. I then remembered that there was a way we could get some light in here, though it wouldn't be much, it would be enough for us to see one another.

'Cyndaquil, I choose you.' I said bringing out my fire starter.

'Cyndaquil can you light your back and guide us by walking in front of Camilla?' I asked.

Cyndaquil didn't give me any indication that it heard me, but it did go in front of Camilla and chirped at her to get her attention.

It ignited its back and suddenly it was a bit lighter in the cave.

Cyndaquil started to walk and Camilla followed. I was behind Camilla, behind me was Jasmine and then Brock.

We walked for a little while before I heard Cyndaquil squeak in alarm.

It backed away toward Camilla and stopped when it got to her leg.

It felt a little comfort in finding Camilla's leg.

'What did you see Cyndaquil?' I asked.

It looked up at me and squeaked meekly.

I'm sure it was a Pokémon and it was a Pokémon on the ground.

I took out my Pokédex, but my Pokédex didn't read anything out. The Pokémon that was there must have moved unless it wasn't a Pokémon. If it wasn't a Pokémon then what was it?

I moved around Camilla and walked a few steps but couldn't see anything.

Cyndaquil walked beside me as we kept trekking. I would be beside it from now on. I didn't want it to get scared because of some Pokémon that was bigger than it.

We walked a few more steps before we came to a wall, this must have been the first turn in the cave, to the left was another wall a few feet away, the only direction was right, so Cyndaquil headed right.

Jasmine squeaked behind us.

I turned in alarm, she seemed okay, just a little shaken.

'Something just brushed against my leg.' She said.

There must have been a Pokémon that liked to be in the shadows and cause us to go crazy, maybe it was because it was dark and a little creepy, maybe we weren't thinking straight because of how long this day had been. It was night now and we were exploring a cave.

'I think a group of Pokémon might be ambushing us.' Jasmine said.

I was thinking that it was just two Pokémon who we happened to cross paths with, but Jasmine made a valid point. What if we were being ambushed by a group of Pokémon?

We would have to defend ourselves. I had two Pokémon to help me and so did Brock. Camilla had one and I wasn't sure how many Jasmine had.

'If it is an ambush I'm sure we can fight our way out, we managed to stop the Heracross, this is just another obstacle.' I replied.

'You sound so confident.' Jasmine observed.

'You should hear him before he faces a Gym.' Camilla chuckled.

'All that confidence seems to disappear.' Brock agreed.

Thanks guys, great boost of confidence, but I was determined that we would get through whatever was coming.

I felt a slither across my leg.

'Okay, there is definitely something there.' Brock said voicing my thoughts.

So, there was more than one. I still had my Pokédex out, I turned around with my Pokédex, but couldn't get a reading, if this were a Pokémon it sure liked to move around a lot, it was definitely evasive.

Camilla brought out her Pokédex and I saw Brock do the same.

Jasmine didn't seem to have one.

With three of us scanning the area around us I'm sure one of us would find out what it was we were looking for.

'There are Zubat sleeping above us.' Brock said.

I thought Zubat were nocturnal, maybe these Zubat didn't know the night from day since they were in a dark cave.

I saw a glimpse of a Pokémon on my Pokédex but wasn't able to remember what it looked like as it only appeared for a fraction of a second.

I looked up from my Pokédex sighing in defeat and in front of me was a creature I had not seen before.

This creature was primarily yellow and looked like some sort of deformed snake. Its head was bulbous, then it thinned to its neck, it had a round body then it thinned again before looking like a ringed horn as its tail. On it back it had a round pattern with horizontal light blue and cream lines. On either side of its neck was a small wing. Its eyes were ringed light blue and cream inside, but they looked like they were closed even though it seemed to be looking straight at me. It had two protrusions on its bottom jaw which was light blue.

This time my Pokédex was able to scan it.

_'Dunsparce, the land snake Pokémon. Dunsparce uses its tail like a drill to burrow, scooting backward into the tunnel. Its underground nest is like a maze.' _ My Pokédex said.

This Pokémon slithered back into its tunnels, I still wondered if it could see, I was glad it was only one though, and not an ambush, like Jasmine guessed.

'Why is it looking straight at me?' Camilla asked, she seemed a little worried.

She wasn't looking in the same direction as me, but a Dunsparce was looking up at her from a different position, than the one that had its eyes glued to me.

'They probably think we trespassed.' Jasmine said, she was also looking at a different Dunsparce, so there were three.

It doesn't say they're territorial.' Brock replied. 'It says they make their own nests, underground.' Brock continued.

He was right, it couldn't be like we were trespassing in their nests, if that were the case this whole cave would have been made by a Dunsparce and I couldn't imagine one that big.

Can we not turn back?' I asked.

'If you can either burrow or fly.' Brock replied. I then looked to where he was, he had a couple Dunsparce slowly backing him toward us.

This was an ambush, guess I was wrong, but this was unusual behaviour, Dunsparce seemed peaceful, so why were they ambushing us? It made no sense. I'm sure we'd get the answer, it just wouldn't be now.

It seemed like we had to battle our way out, they looked like bug types, so this should be easy for Brock and me.

I then looked at my Pokédex to make sure I was correct. Unfortunately, I wasn't.

These Pokémon were normal type.

A type that didn't have an advantage against anything, but luckily I had a Pokémon that was part fighting. But this would be hard for both him and I, since this place was dark I guess Dunsparce had the upper edge.

'Heracross, I choose you.'

Heracross came out and jumped in front of Cyndaquil between it and the Dunsparce.

'Totodile, let's go.' Brock called out.

'Magnemite, it's up to you.' Jasmine said, it seemed as if she only had Magnemite as her Pokémon.

'Chikorita, light the stage.' Camilla sent out her only Pokémon.

Chikorita didn't look like it cared that it's trainer was in trouble, but the Dunsparce looked at Chikorita.

I couldn't concentrate on Camilla's battle. I had a Dunsparce to take care of myself.

'Ready, Heracross?' I asked.

Dunsparce made a lunge for Heracross.

'Use your horn to stop it.' I said.

Heracross bowed its head and Heracross gained no damage from the attack, Dunsparce bounced harmlessly off of Heracross horn.

It seemed Dunsparce was too big to be caught in Heracross horn, not like Cyndaquil.

I knew that Heracross had only one fighting move, I didn't know if it was enough to take care of Dunsparce, but there was only one way to find out.

'Use Mach punch.' I said.

Heracross reeled its hand back and created a fist, its fist glowed white, it brought its fist toward Dunsparce and hit its face.

Dunsparce sailed in the air and slumped against the wall. I expected it to go down, but it glared back at Heracross again.

It flapped its wings and hovered in the air for a few seconds before landing back on the floor again.

It pointed its tail in the ground and began to dig backwards.

It was using dig; it was a move where it could come out from anywhere and I had no way to know.

'Heracross, keep alert.' I said.

Heracross looked around it to see where the Dunsparce would emerge.

I heard a small rumble underneath Heracross.

'Dodge and use Mach punch.' I said.

Heracross jumped to the side as Dunsparce leapt out of the ground backward and hit the Dunsparce on the stomach. The Dunsparce once again sailed through the air and landed on the ground, and once again it still looked fit to fight.

Two super effective moves and the Dunsparce was still willing to battle, this was definitely personal, and I had no idea why they ambushed us in the first place.

I glanced toward Camilla and Chikorita, Chikorita seemed to be battling, but Camilla didn't look happy about it.

Dunsparce slithered toward Heracross quite quickly and slashed its tail underneath it. I didn't know what it was doing until it was too late. Heracross fell on the floor, but it was otherwise okay.

It got back up with no difficulty, I didn't know what move that was, but I'm sure it wasn't a normal type, this Dunsparce had a wide move pool set.

It knew dig and pound, and a move that was to do with the tail but wasn't iron tail.

I had used only one of Heracross moves, but the Dunsparce was not giving up that easily, neither did Heracross before I caught it though, both were strong willed Pokémon, I just wondered which one had more will than the other.

'Struggle bug.'

Heracross flew a few feet into the air and small waves emitted from its body.

Dunsparce rolled into a ball and grabbed its tail with its mouth before rolling toward Heracross, the waves hit Dunsparce, but that didn't halt it, it kept coming.

'Heracross, Mach punch.'

Heracross drew its fist back, as soon as Dunsparce was a few inches it threw its fist toward the rolling Dunsparce.

Both attacks connected and the Dunsparce stopped as a boom echoed and ricocheted throughout the cave. I thought the move would make Dunsparce fly back again, but it must have gained too much momentum to be pushed back.

'Megahorn.' I called.

Heracross lowered its head and pushed Dunsparce back with its glowing horn. Heracross started to get faster.

Dunsparce seemed to realize what was happening. It started to dig backwards and Heracross fell on its face, just like it had when I battled it.

I had to end this battle quickly or else we'd never get out of here.

Heracross got up, not happy that it had been outsmarted once again. I would have to train with it as it was not used to use its horn a lot, it was leader and should be able to show leadership and efficiency when using its horn, but instead of now being wild it was now my Pokémon and it had never needed to battle with its horn before, the trees bark didn't fight back or move, so it was easier to get rid of.

This Dunsparce was moving and making it difficult.

I realized Dunsparce was still in the ground, it had used dig again, but I'm sure it wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

I'd have to find some other way to outsmart it and stop it from continuing its assault on Heracross.

Dunsparce shot out of the ground, but it was next to Heracross, not below, but I understood why not a second later, it flicked its tail toward Heracross and Heracross sailed a few feet back and hit its back against a cave wall.

Heracross slumped to the floor, this Dunsparce was getting the better of us. I had never lost a wild Pokémon battle, not ever, and I didn't want to now. I was supposed to be an experienced Pokémon trainer. I had travelled for two years with Pokémon, battling a wild Pokémon shouldn't be this hard, it should be easy for me to win against a wild Pokémon, or at least with moderate difficulty, even if I had never seen or battled the Pokémon before.

Dunsparce then looked at me as Heracross was currently immobile.

Is slowly slithered toward me, was it going to harm me. I saw Cyndaquil was currently occupied with a Dunsparce. I had two Pokémon and this Dunsparce looked like it wanted to harm a human.

I had never known a Pokémon to hate humans, well except Mewtwo and that was because of team Rocket, and upon my death he changed his mind, I would not die for two reasons, one I promised Camilla and even with me dying it wouldn't stop the Dunsparce, I doubt they'd be able to comprehend my death as a way of me saving my friends and Pokémon. Of course, my death wouldn't be like that now, it would be stupidity and violence of a Pokémon.

I saw the Dunsparce was ready to lunge toward me, but before it did it was lifted of the ground. It flew into the air and slowly disappeared; I knew I would see it again though.

Heracross was standing in front of me, it flashed me a smile and I was grateful it had saved me from the Dunsparce.

I saw its fist beside it had started to glow white.

The Dunsparce appeared falling from above and Heracross threw its fist round as Dunsparce connected and Heracross drove its fist behind it as it turned. Dunsparce hit the wall that Heracross had been thrown toward a minute ago.

It fell to the floor and didn't move from that spot.

I saw Camilla throw a Pokéball toward a Dunsparce.

She was going to catch a Dunsparce?

I did not see her Chikorita out, maybe she had recalled it to catch the Dunsparce.

The ball encapsulated the worn out Dunsparce before it fell to the ground.

I noticed Brock and Jasmine behind me, both had finished their battle with the Dunsparce. Totodile was no longer out, neither was Jasmines Magnemite.

The Pokéball shook softly as Dunsparce struggled to escape, but the Pokéball was still able to keep it in.

Dunsparce slowly gave up and Camilla had caught her second Pokémon.

'That worked?' She asked.

She seemed surprised that she actually caught the Dunsparce.

'You caught a Dunsparce, Camilla.' Brock commented.

'Y-yeah.' Camilla replied still in shock.

'Did you not want to capture it?' Jasmine asked.

Camilla didn't reply for a while.

'I just wanted to stop it from attacking Chikorita.' Camilla replied.

'Didn't you recall Chikorita?' I asked.

'Yeah...I did.' Her tone made it sound like that wasn't the whole truth.

'What happened?' Jasmine asked.

Camilla turned to us, she had guilt written all over her face.

'Chikorita ran away.' Camilla replied. She hung her head.

This wasn't exactly her fault, it had never happened to any of us before, but professor Elm said that this Chikorita was prone to running away, it didn't trust humans and looked like it had a sudden dislike for Camilla. We had met a few Pokémon that didn't trust humans, but none had taken a dislike to a singular person, like this Chikorita had done with Camilla.

Camilla clipped the Dunsparce she had just caught in a Pokéball to her belt. I hadn't noticed that there was an open empty Pokéball at Camilla's feet. That must have been Chikorita's

Camilla slumped to her knees in defeat.

I returned both Cyndaquil and Heracross, I clipped them to my belt before I walked to Camilla and got down to her level.

She had her head hung; I saw the tear drops fall from her chin into her lap staining her deep blue skirt making it darker.

'Look at me.' I said.

Camilla barely shook her head declining my request.

I sighed at her stubbornness.

'Camilla?' I started. 'Look at me.'

I noticed Brock and Jasmine walked up to a few feet behind Camilla while I was on my knees in front of her.

She slowly lifted her head, but her eyes were closed.

I saw a tear escape each of her eyes. I had never seen Camilla this down before, not even when she told me her secret.

The tears fell to her chin and dropped off onto her dress, creating two more stains.

She slowly opened her eyes to look at me.

The look she had in her eyes held so many emotions, I didn't think I could count that high, I didn't want to list them off that would make me feel bad, I wasn't kneeling here in front of Camilla to put myself down, I was here to pick her up, like she had done so many times for me.

'Why are you feeling down?' I asked.

She sniffed before all the emotions in her eyes fled and surprise replaced them.

'What?' She asked.

I brushed back a strand of loose hair behind her left ear, which was stuck to her tear stained cheek.

'Why are you feeling down?' I echoed my previous question.

I was thankful Brock and Jasmine were being quiet. Brock knew exactly what I was doing, but Jasmine was probably confused.

Surprise was replaced with confusion in Camilla's eyes.

I was getting somewhere, but I had hardly started with my pep talk.

'You lost a Pokémon, so what?' I asked.

I saw anger was starting to swell on Camilla, so I continued my talk before she could butt in. 'What happened when I had an out of control Pokémon?' I asked rhetorically.

'You let it go, to train with someone else.' Camilla replied anyway.

'Forget the let it go bit. I believed someone else could tame the Pokémon that I couldn't.' I told her. 'I believed it was better off with them than it would ever be with me.' I added. I was wrong, but that wasn't the part of this speech, so I left it out. 'This Pokémon that you lost needs a strong trainer.' I continued. 'There is no other trainer more fitting than you, Camilla.' I added.

She scoffed at me, but I knew I almost had the old Camilla back. The tears had stopped, she had stopped sniffling, she still looked sad, but annoyed at me that I was right and that she couldn't back me up with a valid argument.

'What? You think a grass Pokémon master could train that Chikorita, or even Erika, the Celadon City Grass type Gym leader, mistress of scenting flowers?' I asked. 'They have nothing against Camilla Brook of Pewter City.' I told her.

I saw an annoyed smile playing on her lips.

'I hate you.' She mouthed.

I brushed that remark off, knowing she didn't mean it.

I stood up.

Jasmine had her mouth agape, I motioned her to close it before Camilla realised. She closed it, but her eyes held shock and amazement.

Brock smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up.

Camilla stood up with her opened empty Pokéball.

'I'm not a failure of a Pokémon trainer, I am going to get my Chikorita back.' Camilla said to no-one in particular.

She needed to do this, she was a strong Pokémon trainer and a strong person as an individual. She was the strongest person I knew, and that Chikorita needed a trainer like Camilla and Camilla wanted that Chikorita as her Pokémon.

She shut her Pokéball and the boost I had given her now gave her confidence.

'Cyndaquil, I choose you.' I said, he was to lead Camilla to her Chikorita.

From our battling the Dunsparce there had been lots of demolition that had taken place and now we could navigate more of this perilous cave that was known to drive people mad, but my head was still on straight.

Camilla started walking following the light from my Cyndaquil's back.

Jasmine fell in directly behind me.

'Jordan?' She asked.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, I didn't realise she was directly behind, she was almost pressed up to me.

'Sorry.' She apologised moving back a bit giving me my space back.

'It's okay, Jasmine.' I replied reassuring her. 'What's up?' I asked.

'How did you do that?' She asked me.

I knew what she meant, but out of force of habit I replied with a different answer.

'Huh?' I asked.

'Camilla, and the...' She trailed off.

'The pep talk?' I asked.

'Yes, two minutes ago, she was more distraught than I had ever seen anyone in my entire life and now she looks like one of the most powerful women in the whole world.' Jasmine replied.

'I don't pride myself on pep talks...' I replied. '...but I do know Camilla Brook.' I continued. 'She is a powerful person; she just needs to believe it more.' I added.

'Touché, Jordan Hale from the town of Pallet.' Camilla said ahead of us. I didn't know she'd be listening in to our conversation.

'Eavesdropping much?' I called ahead.

'No, you two talk loud.' She replied.

She was definitely back to her old self, she was beginning to infuriate me in the worst possible way, obviously it was playful banter, but I hadn't had that sort of relationship with Camilla, maybe we got past our awkwardness stage that everyone, but she and I had picked up on.

'You know you should concentrate on getting your Pokémon back, else my pep talk was all for naught.' I called back.

'You don't have to rhyme, and who says naught?' She asked.

I decided to ignore her knowing that whatever I said she would comeback with something just as good.

'They always like this?' Jasmine asked Brock.

'It's as new to you as it is to me and I've travelled with them for almost two years.' Brock told Jasmine.

'So this is a new phase' Jasmine asked.

'Yeah.' Brock replied.

I decided to ignore them too, I didn't know how long the conversation would go on for and I didn't want to be involved if they got to the "complicated" parts of Camilla and me.

I started to think about the holographic blue card that Mr. Guide gave us. It was strange to receive this gift from him, we had no idea what it was for or even if it was for something, apparently there were a few other cards, but I had no idea where they were, if we would get them and I couldn't remember what colour the guide gent said there were, he did say that there as a red one and possibly a green, maybe a yellow, a purple or orange, or maybe it was black or grey. I could not remember, and it was bugging me that I wanted to know what these were for.

I remembered there was a lot going on in my mind.

I wondered what Rachel had been doing for the past year, I had missed my best friend terribly, it would nice to just spend an hour with her catching up on her adventures and telling her about mine.

Tracey was probably having the time of his life with Professor Oak who was probably still in Johto at the moment, he was going to get the train back to Saffron then travel all the way back to Pallet somehow.

My mum, I knew she missed me and I felt guilty about leaving her all the time, it had been two years since I spent more than a day with her, once I finished this journey I would spend more than one day with her before and if I left for another journey.

I wondered what Alan was doing now, did he have a career, was he still travelling somewhere else. Was he still a great trainer aiming to beat the Pokémon league?

Jason Green, that was someone I had not thought about, I wondered how he was doing, did he go back and challenge the Pokémon league, or had he moved on to another adventure?

Then there was Daniel and his mega Charizard, his dragon form, it boggled my mind, but he must have had some stone or something so he could change his form too, but I didn't want to think about that. He was a great Pokémon trainer, but next time we battled if I saw him again I would have a different team and I would like to see how he fairs against my new team when I acquire it. Also he would probably tell me about his folklore.

Leaf and Liam, they were both travelling together again, unlike Camilla and I, I was pretty sure something was going on between them, I think they liked each other, but they couldn't tell that, not like everyone else could, but I wouldn't press them, I would just tease them both, just like everyone else did.

My dad said he was going to see me sometime on my journey through Johto, but I didn't know when. Riley had hinted about it before I went on my orange islands adventure, he knew that my dad was going to tell me, but if he knew for that long before my dad told me, it must have been big, something that my dad had thought about telling me, but didn't. It now seemed important and I couldn't get it out of my head. It was infuriating as to why he couldn't tell me before, was it because I wasn't ready or because he didn't know how to say it, or he didn't know how I would react to what he was going to say? It infuriated me, but I had to be patient, my dad never rushed into things he was so calm, and I had to respect that, one day I was going to be just like him, only better and more well known. My dad was almost known by no-one around my age, hundreds of people knew about Blue and Lance and the Pokémon league members, but no-one knew about my dad, a trainer from pallet town who beat the Pokémon league his first time. Gold also knew about him, so he must have travelled Johto after he gave Blue the responsibility of being champion, my dad didn't like the idea of being champion, instead he travelled and found out more about Pokémon and left Blue the title of Kanto's Pokémon league champion.

A grunt pulled me out of my thoughts.

Camilla perked up and knew that it was her Chikorita.

We needed to be quiet, else we would startle Chikorita and it would just run again.

We moved a few more feet and opened into a cavern.

I could see a small black shape running into a wall trying to knock it down or move some of the rock away, but the attempt was futile.

There was no doubt why it was trying to escape.

'Chikorita!' Camilla called.

The black figure turned, and we saw it was Chikorita. It looked pretty beat up, probably from attacking the Dunsparce and then attempting to attack this wall of rocks, it was impenetrable to something ramming it, unless it was a Rhydon or an Onix maybe, or a Sandslash with an earthquake and magnitude rolled into one, or even maybe a Pokémon with fissure, but not to a Chikorita, no matter how strong its will was.

I felt a little sorry for this Chikorita, it had struggled to get so far from every trainer that it had been given to, I knew Camilla would get to the bottom of its problem, that would cause their relationship to grow and it would bring them close, then they could build a bridge to strengthen their relationship. But it would only work if Chikorita trusted Camilla which didn't look like it was going to happen any time soon.

I knew eventually Camilla and Chikorita would be so close that it would seem as though this relationship struggle they had at the moment never existed, like they had been friends since the day they met, no-one would believe that Chikorita had a strong dislike for Camilla.

'Come on, Chikorita, you're hurt, I only want to help.' Camilla said.

I must have missed some of their conversation.

Chikorita yelled a few times at Camilla.

I knew we couldn't understand Pokémon speech, but it seemed pretty clear what Chikorita was saying and there was no way I was going to translate that, or even something remotely on the lines of that. I had been taught not to be foul mouthed. I shuddered just thinking of what that Chikorita had said.

'Here.' Camilla said, throwing the Pokéball toward Chikorita.

Chikorita looked at in disgust, like this was some joke.

'You go in the Pokéball, I'll take you to a Pokémon centre and when you're completely healed you are free.' Camilla said.

I couldn't believe what Camilla was saying, once she healed Chikorita she was going to release it into the wild? Even after that pep talk she was going to ignore it and just abide by Chikorita's wishes to let it go?

Chikorita looked at Camilla, deliberating on whether she was being truthful or not. It didn't detect a lie and neither did I.

Was Camilla serious?

Chikorita touched the Pokéball and allowed itself to be transported to a Pokémon centre via Camilla before it would be healed and later released.

'Are you serious?' I asked Camilla if she was crazy.

'Yes.' She said shaking her head like she was saying no. She confused me. 'How else am I supposed to get Chikorita to trust me?' She asked.

Well this wasn't the way, not by tricking her, but Chikorita would never have come if Camilla didn't lie to her. I saw her point, but let's hope that their relationship would flourish into something beautiful.

'Now that that's settled, what do you say we get out of this cave and see if we can reach Violet city before the sun rises?' Brock asked.

**Jordan: Okay, we are currently trying to find a way out of this cave.**

**Camilla: So, we'll keep this brief.**

**Jordan: We'll be back when we get out of here. *Ouch* stupid rock.**

**Camilla: See you guys next time.**

**Chapter Eight: A Sprouting Tower**


	8. A Sproting Tower

**Camilla: This is a disclaimer**

**Jordan: Just so the author doesn't get sued **

**Camilla: Then we wouldn't be able to do this**

**Jordan: Let's get on with it**

8\. A Sprouting Tower

Two things.

One: We made it out of the cave.

Two: We didn't reach Violet city before the sun rose.

We exited the cave, all of us exhausted.

Camilla looked like she would collapse, she came out of the cave looking wide awake for about two seconds before she felt exhaustion drape over her.

Jasmine was struggling to keep her eyes open, yawning as she walked out into the night.

Brock was the only one of us who didn't look completely tired, he moved a bit slower, but other than that he seemed fine.

I dreaded to know how I looked to them.

I got my answer a few seconds later.

'Jordan, you look like a zombie.' Camilla observed.

If I wasn't so tired I would have made a remark, but I could feel sleep taking over me. Maybe I should ask if we could sleep now.

'Can we camp for the night?' Jasmine asked. 'Who knows how far we are from Violet City, it could be another days trek.' She continued.

She had a point, none of us had travelled to Violet city before, it could be ages away.

'I second that.' Camilla said. ' I'm tired, I think I need to sleep.'

Today had been a hectic day, who knew how tomorrow would be, maybe we could calm down for a bit, but we might make it to Violet city tomorrow and I could take on the gym leader.

I was eager to gain my first badge, I just hoped I would be pumped for it.

I was normally always doubting myself before a battle, but I never had a gym battle in Johto before, so maybe I was more confident when I battled here, but anyone would be nervous before an official battle, right?

'Jordan, can you help me set up the tent?' Brock asked me taking me out of my thoughts.

I was too busy thinking about my gym battle I hadn't noticed that Brock had started putting up our tent.

If I helped him put it up I could get to sleep quicker, I also knew that Brock wouldn't be travelling with me forever. It would be great to learn from him besides, when he left I hoped I would be able to do things myself. I was 12 years old, it was best I learn now so I could do things without him guiding me every step of the way.

I went to help Brock set up the tent, we got it all set up within ten minutes.

I was struggling to keep my eyes open as I rolled out my sleeping bag. I slipped into the sleeping back and almost immediately fell asleep.

_I was standing in the Pokemon centre, pacing back and forth across the lobby._

_I could feel my friends eyes on me, they were talking to me, but their voices didn't reach my ears, I was too angry with myself._

_How could I do this?_

_The Pokemon was injured when we found it, I shouldn't have let it battle for me. Sure I won, but it wasn't worth the price of what had happened to the Pokemon._

_What would everyone else I knew think?_

_I was a terrible person, not just a terrible Pokemon trainer, but a terrible person overall._

_I wasn't as bad as the people that caught the Pokemon, but I was still a bad person._

_Maybe I should ask the gym leader to take back my badge, maybe I should have a rematch with him to earn my badge properly, I didn't want to earn any of my badges because I had an advantage, I wanted to use the two Pokémon I had caught to start off with, not the Pokemon I recently acquired._

_The nurse came out and I instantly rushed to her, I didn't hear her voice or mine, but we must have conversed because she led me to where the Pokemon was._

_The Pokemon was in an intensive care room, it was inside some sort of dome that had tubes connected to it._

_It looked almost as bad as when we found it in the wild, but this time it had nothing to cover its skin, it was pink all over, I saw there were so many cuts and bruises that we hadn't seen or been able to treat, the Pokemon looked so weak and helpless. What kind of person was I?_

_The Pokemon looked like it could die any second, and it was all my fault. I wished there was something I could do about it._

_The nurse left me and I put a hand on the windows of the room praying that this Pokemon would get better._

I woke up, the light streaming into the tent.

How late was it? Had I slept through the whole morning?

I realised Brock was not in his sleeping bag.

I got out of mine and rushed to get dressed and exit the tent.

I saw Brock a few feet away he was standing next to a table with a pot over a stove, he was chopping up vegetables before putting them in the pot.

He stirred the pot for a few seconds.

His eyes landed on me.

'I was about to come and get you, you have been asleep for a while.' He told me.

Was I the last one up?

'Are the girls up?' I asked.

'Not yet, but I think you'd like lunch before them, you know, also having a second helping.' Brock replied.

Lunch?

I looked to the sky and realised Brock was right it was almost midday, I had slept almost the whole morning.

'How long have you been up?' I asked.

'Only about half an hour.' Brock replied.

That made me feel a bit better.

'We didn't get to sleep till quite late last night, I don't think that we would have had much sleep if we woke up when the rest of the region did.' Brock continued.

'Hopefully we can reach Violet city today.' I said. I hoped we had enough time in the day until it got dark.

'I don't doubt it.' Brock said as if he knew something I didn't.

He pointed to the right of the tent, a few feet away were a set of stairs that looked like they were engraved into the ground and a few meters from that was a gate building.

That was the entrance to Violet city.

We had been this close to it the whole time.

It was best that we fell asleep in our tents, who knew where the Pokémon centre was in Violet city, it could be at the other side of the city.

There was no doubt we would reach Violet city today.

I went back into the tent and rolled up my sleeping bag. I put it back into my bag and started to take the tent apart.

I saw Brock look at me from my peripheral vision.

He had a look of surprise on his face, but he never took his eye off of his cooking.

As soon as I had managed to put the tent back in it's bag the girls had started to get up.

'Morning girls.' I greeted them as I finished zipping up the back.

'Morning.' Camilla chirped.

'Hi.' Jasmine said with a little less enthusiasm.

'Lunch is almost ready.' Brock told us.

As if on cue, my stomach rumbled.

I laughed inwardly hoping no-one else heard my stomach.

I let out my Pokemon as Brock placed three large bowls of Pokémon food on the ground.

Cyndaquil and Heracross happily walked over to eat the food.

The only Pokémon that wasn't let out was Camilla's Chikorita, but I'm sure Camilla would let it have food soon, she had to make sure that Chikorita wouldn't run away.

Brock poured us each a bowl of his stew.

It was lovely, I savoured the food, but I'm sure I would need seconds especially if my first Gym battle was in Violet city, I needed to keep up my strength for it.

I wondered what type the gym was, who the gym leader was if there was any challenge I would have to overcome before I could battle him, with every gym leader in Kanto-besides Giovanni-gave me a challenge that I had to overcome, it would be great if this Gym leader required the same sort of challenge.

Before I got my second serving I made sure that there was enough for everyone else, if they wanted another helping, the pot still looked like it had plenty even after I poured myself a second helping.

'Are you that hungry, Jordan ?' Camilla asked rhetorically.

'Just on the other side of that gate might possibly be my first gym battle in this region.' I said with enthusiasm.

I was looking forward to start my challenge in this region.

'You seem really ready and pumped up.' Jasmine acknowledged.

I was always either pumped up or doubting myself, but this was my first official battle since I had battled Bruno in the indigo league just over a year ago. The orange league was not officiated by the Pokémon league Chairman, but still hundreds of people attended as Drake had not been beaten in five years, until I beat him a month or so ago.

As soon as we finished the girls offered to wash up and Brock pointed them in the direction of a stream that wasn't far beyond the trees.

I started taking down the girls tent as soon as the girls were gone from view.

Halfway through Brock joined in to help me.

'Thanks.' I said.

'You shouldn't take on so much at once, Jordan.' He told me.

'I want to help.' I protested.

'And I'm glad you're taking more responsibility, but when you help for the first time you should use supervision, if you get it wrong then it could destroy the rest of your journey.' He told me.

'Did I take out tent down wrong?' I asked. I was worried I hadn't done it right.

'No, but there is an easier way to store it.' He told me. 'That's why I'm helping you out now.' He continued.

Brock showed me an easier way to put it away by folding the material to better fit it back into the bag and rolling the sticks into the material.

The girls came back a few minutes after we had put the tent into the bag.

Brock took the clean crockery from the girls and put them in his bag.

We returned our Pokémon and I took the bag that Brock and my tent was stored in.

'I want to lighten your load.' I replied.

Camilla carried the other one.

It wasn't that heavy to carry, not like I expected, and I could clip it to the bottom of my bag, so I wasn't always carrying two things.

Brock didn't protest.

I did heed Brock's words, I wanted to help, but he told me I should take it slow, at least taking something from him so he didn't have to carry as much was fine, right?

We reached the gate in less than a minute.

I wondered how Violet city would look, how big it was, were there any landmarks that were significant. Some towns and cities had places of interest, like Lavender town and Cinnabar island.

I wondered how this region would differ, we had nothing like that just yet.

We exited the other side of the gate and I saw this town was lovely, it felt a little dark, but a sort of historic dark.

The path was cross crossed cobblestone.

I saw the Pokémon centre was a few meters ahead on the right.

It looked exactly like any Pokémon centre, but the red was deeper and darker, it's colour added to the feel of this city.

So we could have made it all the way to Violet city and slept in the Pokémon centre, but I guess sleeping in our tents was good as we had not done that in a while.

I doubted Jasmine had done that before.

'So, Jasmine,' I started, 'have you ever camped out before?' I asked.

'Only when I was a little girl, but I don't remember the experience.' She replied.

'How was this experience?' Camilla asked.

'It wasn't as bad as I expected, but it didn't matter, I was too tired when we exited the cave.' Jasmine replied.

I understood, I was extremely tired too.

We entered the Pokémon centre.

I would need to rest my Pokémon before I took on the gym, make sure Cyndaquil and Heracross were at full health.

'Hello.' Nurse joy greeted us as we reached the counter. 'How may I help you?' She asked.

'Could you take our Pokémon please?' I asked.

She set out four trays, each with six round indents on them for Pokeball.

We each placed our Pokéball's on the trays and she put them on a table which was wheeled behind by Chansey.

We went to sit down while our Pokémon were being healed up.

'Jordan, what is your strategy for beating this city's gym leader?' Jasmine asked me.

'Do you have any idea what type they specialise in?' I asked her.

'No.' She replied. 'I don't know much about the gyms around this region. I don't think I'd be much help when it comes to what each gym specialise in.' She added.

'So, let me guess.' Camilla started.

'Yep.' I replied.

She knew exactly what I was going to say and I guessed Brock did too.

'I'm going to wing it.' I announced.

Jasmine looked at me, shock wasn't exactly the expression that was upon her face, more like mildly surprised.

She was getting used to my personality. I know that Brock and Rachel didn't need to get used to me, I surprised Brock when I battled him in his gym and Rachel and I had known each other for ages, as with Brock I also surprised Camilla in our first battle.

'That's not exactly a strategy, Jordan.' Jasmine pointed out.

'If I have no idea what type they use, it's the only option I have.' I replied.

Jasmine was about to protest, but she stopped herself for whatever reason.

The ding signalled that our Pokémon had been restored.

My strategic conversation was over, now we would head straight to the gym.

The gym wasn't as far away as I thought it was, it only took us a few minutes to come across it.

It looked like a regular gym.

It had a brown domed roof that was cut into three by two large orange beams that went to either side of the door a few meters before going up to the base of the dome and angling inwards before crossing across the top of the dome toward the back. On each side was two teal stripes that went under the orange beam.

One was on the floor and went the whole way round and the second was up to my waist and parallel to the first one.

Above the door was a teal plaque with the top half of a white Pokeball with a line going diagonally through it on the right, like the Pokeball was rolling to the left.

In front of the doors was a man with striking blue hair. It covered his right eye, his eyes-well the eye that was visible-was the same colour as his hair. He had really pale skin, it was almost white. He was wearing a blue martial arts shirt and shorts, it was a lighter blue than his hair. A white martial arts belt was tied around his waist. He had a short-sleeved sky blue jacket over the martial arts shirt, the bottom of the vest had a white line going around it. On either side of the front of the jacket were two large white circles. He had black shorts underneath his martial arts shorts. The white socks he was wearing were tucked into the black shorts. The shoes he had were black, they were toe caps. A black strap went from the toe cap to another strap, but this strap went around the top of the foot. The straps were connected with a red clip. On his forearms he had bands they were primarily black, but had a red stripe at his wrist and just before his elbow, where the bands ended.

He looked like he was waiting for us.

'Hello.' He greeted us. 'I believe you are to tackle the gym leader?' He asked.

'I am.' I said stepping forward.

'Perfect.' The guy said with enthusiasm. 'The gym leader requires you take on sprout tower before you enter his gym.'

'Sprout tower?' I asked.

'You see that large pagoda at the edge of the city?' The man asked pointing to the right of the gym but further across the city.

I saw a wooden beam pointing through the top of a black roof.

'That is sprout tower, it is a test of strength and willpower, the gym leader asks you to take it on before he deems you worthy.' This man said.

This gym leader seemed serious.

But it was a challenge and gym leaders could give a trainer any challenge to complete before they battled us.

If I wanted to take on the gym leader it seemed as if I had to take on sprout tower first.

'The gym leader asks that you make your way to the top of the tower and receive a scroll from the elder, then bring the scroll to him.' The man said.

'It shouldn't take that long, Jordan.' Camilla encourages.

'Of course.' Jasmine continued. 'We can..'

'I'm sorry.' The man said. 'But the gym leader requires only the challenger to enter sprout tower.'

I gave my friends a reassuring smile.

I wouldn't be gone long, all I had to do was recover a scroll.

'Easy peasy.' I said.

'Fantastic.' The man exclaimed with as much enthusiasm as the first time.

'Your friends can wait in the gym for you, the gym leader is eager and will wait for your return.' The man said.

'Good luck.' Camilla said giving me a hug.

'You'll do great.' Brock said patting me on the shoulder.

'Don't take too long.' Jasmine added.

I waited until the man had disappeared into the gym with my friends before I headed in the direction of-what was apparently-sprout tower.

I didn't have any difficulty in finding it, it was the largest structure in this city easily.

When I got closer I saw it was three stories high.

The floors were all brown and wooden, they also looked quite worn, like this building had stood here for countless generations. The roof of each floor was black, it overhung the previous floor.

The roof was also black and looked like it could have been a rectangular based pyramid, but I didn't know what it looked like on the inside.

There were two black wooden bridges to get to sprout tower. The first bridge led to a small island with a single black lamp on it.

The second bridge led to where the tower was.

I entered and what I saw was not what I had expected.

There were two large wooden statues stopping me from proceeding to the left or the right. The statues had a thick body with two leaf like arms and a huge bulbous head pointing outwards instead of up, like a regular plant. It had an open mouth where the flower came from, but there was no flower. It also had two small eyes, one on either side of the bulb head.

I saw there was a large beam in the middle of the tower, that must have been what was keeping it upright, it looked like it was swaying, but it may have looked that way because of what time I fell asleep this morning or late last night.

There were a few people down here, I would have talked to them, but I had a task at hand to complete. I could not afford to stop for chats.

I saw someone in a hooded grey robe standing at the foot of a ladder. His head was bowed. I didn't want to disturb him, he might have been praying.

I reached the ladder and proceeded to climb up it but he hadn't moved. I was thankful that I hadn't disturbed him.

I reached the second floor, this floor looked a little incomplete, like someone forgot to finish the flooring. The beams in the floor crisscrossed making diamond holes that were only a few inches deep.

I saw another hooded grey cloaked figure, they were holding a rope in their hand. He also had his head down.

Why did he have a rope though, was this challenge to quietly go past these hooded men without interrupting them?

I felt a little threatened by the rope.

Was he to tie me up if I disturbed him?

I would go past him just like I did with the one on the ground floor.

I slowly walked toward the hooded person, but before I was able to walk past them their head snapped up.

I couldn't see his face as it was still hidden in the shadows by the hood

'The tower sways, but we stand strong.' This person said.

It startled me and I stepped back a few feet. It was a male voice, now I knew the identity of this person.

'Go, Bellsprout.' He called.

A Pokémon that resembled a plant came out. It had a brown spindly body and legs, the feet looked like roots, it had leaves for arms which were slightly curled. Its head was yellow and bulbous and half the size of its body, it had two small black eyes on either side of its head and the mouth had pink lips in an "O" shape.

So I had to battle my way to collect the scroll, this was more challenging than I had previously predicted, but I was going to have a battle challenge, I agreed to the terms.

I took out my Pokedex to scan this Pokémon.

'Bellsprout, the flower Pokémon. Bellsprouts's long, thin body can bend in any direction, so it's good at dodging attacks. The liquid it spits is highly corrosive.' My Pokedex informed me. This was not a Pokedex entry I would have preferred.

Two downsides on my part.

Instead of complaining I sent out a Pokémon.

'Heracross, I choose you.'

Heracross came out and looked ready to fight. This was our first proper fight and I wanted Hercaross to trust me as best as it could and if I was right, this Pokémon was a grass which would be weak against my bug type, Heracross. I was going in with an advantage.

'Bellsprout, vine whip.' This guy said.

'Heracross, dodge and use struggle bug.' I said.

Bellsprout balanced on one leg and outstretched it's other leg and brought it down toward Heracross who jumped to the side just in time, the leg root came down upon the wooden floor.

Heracross jumped up and curled itself out before spreading its arms as wide as it could, green rays emanated from Heracross body toward the Bellsprout.

The man didn't say anything, but struggle bug was a move that I had not yet seen a Pokémon dodge. Although, apparently Bellsprout was good at dodging.

The struggle bug hit and Bellsprout fell.

That was all it took? How weak were these Bellsprout? I thought it would take at least a few hits, but no. It only took one attack and this person didn't even ask Bellsprout dodge, he just let the attack hit.

He returned his Bellsprout and I thought the battle was over, that was until he sent out a second Pokémon.

'Go Bellsprout!' He called.

He had two Bellsprout, what was different about this one? Was it stronger, faster, better at dodging attacks?

I decided to stay with Heracross, I knew Cyndaquil would be good at battling these Bellsprout too, but he was strong enough at the moment and I would definitely use him later if there were other trainers.

'Bellsprout, use vine whip.'

Did Bellsprout know any other move, or was it vine whip, it is the only move that has been used and this person has had two Bellsprout so far, I knew they probably wouldn't have a full moveset, but maybe two or three moves.

I didn't tell Heracross to dodge this time, especially if vine whip was the only move that Bellsprout knew.

Bellsprout brought the vine down on Heracross, Heracross didn't even flinch or show any sign of the move hurting him at all.

'Use struggle bug.' I said.

Heracross used the move like before, and like before the same outcome occurred.

Was this person losing on purpose or was he just not a good trainer?

He returned his second Bellsprout, but I didn't let up. I'm sure that because he wasn't any good he would have more Pokémon.

'Go Bellsprout.'

Three? He had three Bellsprout? Did he worship this Pokémon or something?

I would keep Heracross, but I didn't want this battle to turn out like the others, I didn't like repetition.

'Heracross, use struggle bug.' I said before this person could issue a vine whip.

This person didn't say anything, I didn't know if it was shock or because he didn't want to, or if there was any other reason, but whatever it was their Bellsprout got hit with the struggle bug and didn't get back up.

They returned their Bellsprout and as soon as he did he took down his hood.

This guy had grey hair on his back and sides, but on the top he was bald.

I returned my Heracross, so this battle was over.

'I am Sage Nico.' He said, so the guys in these robes were sages. 'Please descend to the next floor.' He continued.

Descend? I had to go down to proceed? I just came up from downstairs.

I turned the corner past him and sure enough there was a ladder that led downstairs. I didn't see it when I was on the ground floor.

I descended downstairs and I was in a corridor, there must have been two rooms downstairs and I don't remember seeing a door.

I walked to the end of the corridor and saw a sage round the corner, the sage was guarding a ladder that led back upstairs.

I guessed I would have to battle this sage, just like I had to battle sage Nico, I was prepared, but I think I would switch it up and use Cyndaquil instead this time around.

I walked in front of him and he spoke.

'Each sway makes us stronger.'

This was stranger than what sage Nico said.

I didn't understand his lines and now this sage confused me even more.

'Go, Bellsprout.'

Of course he'd have a Bellsprout.

It made sense why this was called sprout tower now, because all these sages used Bellsprout.

'Cyndaquil, I choose you.'

Cyndaquil looked like it was ready to battle. I hadn't battled with it since we went up against the Heracross swarm together.

This would be good for us both, now he could have a worthy battle.

'Use vine whip.'

Again? Seriously, did these Bellsprout not know any other moves? Anything else but a vine whip.

'Ember.' I said.

Cyndaquil shot out an ember toward Bellsprout which halted its attack, but also hit it and the Bellsprout fell.

That was the first one, I think that the only reason why I was KO-ing these Pokémon was because of the type advantage.

I didn't recall Cyndaquil, I'm sure there were other Pokémon that he had, it was most likely a Bellsprout.

He recalled his first Pokémon.

'Bellsprout, Go.' He said.

I would get sick of Bellsprout soon, they were so easy to predict now.

'Ember.' I said before the sage could issue an attack.'

Ember flew toward the Bellsprout and it fell in defeat.

Two down and now I probably had one or two more to go.

Maybe this sage would be harder than sage Nico was, not worse.

He recalled his second Bellsprout.

'Bellsprout, Go!' He called sending out his third Bellsprout.

I didn't want to waste time with this one, so I attacked as soon as possible.

'Cyndaquil, use ember.'

'Dodge and use vine whip.' The sage called.

Bellsprout managed to avoid Cyndaquil's ember.

I was surprised by this, but I couldn't let the surprise be my downfall, so I got over the surprise as quickly as possible.

I had no time to get Cyndaquil to dodge the vine whip, but it did minimal damage.

'Use ember.' I said.

'Dodge, Bellsprout.'

This time however, Bellsprout was too slow and it got hit by the ember.

It struggled to get up, eventually it's leaf arms gave way and I knew Cyndaquil had triumphed.

He called back his Bellsprout, I waited to see if he had a fourth, but he started to take down his hood, so I returned Cyndaquil.

'I am sage Chow.' This sage told me.

Maybe the sages were told to tell me their names if I defeated them.

I walked toward the ladder that led up to the second floor.

I wondered where the sage on the next floor would be and if he would also give me a riddle, something that I wouldn't understand.

I reached the top of the floor, but didn't see a sage.

There was a corner I had to turn, maybe my third sage would be around that.

I turned the corner, there was another sage, but this one was standing in front of the ladder, so the only way to access it, would be to beat him.

There was a statue, like the ones on the bottom floor on the opposite side of the ladder to where I was.

I wondered when I battled this sage, would he have more than one Bellsprout. Would he have three, like the previous two sages had? Or would he have less or more?

It would be quicker to walk up to him and find out.

I walked in front of him and he spoke his own riddle.

'It stands for hundreds of years.' He said.

This confused me as much as sage Chow did, but it sounded as simple as sage Nico's phrase.

'Bellsprout, let's go.' He called.

A Bellsprout came out, but it looked slightly different to the previous ones, like it was stronger somehow.

Jordan: Since Camilla is not here at the moment I will be signing off without her, I still have a while to go through sprout tower, but I'll see you all next time.

Chapter nine: The Bells Toll with a Hoot


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